Marker for prenatal diagnosis and monitoring
AssigneeThe Chinese University of Hong Kong
InventorsYuk Ming Dennis Lo, Wai Kwun Rossa Chiu, Stephen Siu Chung Chim, Yu-Kwan Tong, Chunming Ding
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Abstract
The present invention relates to new methods for diagnosing a pregnancy-associated disorder by analyzing fetal DNA present in the mother's blood. More specifically, this invention relies on the discovery that the maspin gene is differentially methylated in fetal DNA and in maternal DNA and provides these new diagnostic methods, which distinguish fetal DNA from maternal DNA and detect prenatal disorders based on abnormalities in fetal DNA level and methylation status.
Claims16
A method of analyzing the maspin gene in the blood of a pregnant woman, comprising the steps of
- (a) isolating DNA from a blood sample taken from a pregnant woman;
- (b) treating the DNA from step (a) with a reagent that differentially modifies methylated and non-methylated DNA, thereby distinguishing methylated and unmethylated version of the maspin gene;
- and
- (c) performing an amplification reaction to amplify at least one portion of the unmethylated version of the maspin gene.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.