Novel therapeutic treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

A method of detecting a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a subject which comprises:

• a) obtaining a suitable sample of mRNA from the subject;
• b) contacting the mRNA sample under hybridizing conditions with a labeled nucleic acid probe which:
• (1) is at least 15 nucleotides in length and (2) hybridizes specifically to a nucleic acid having a sequence which is complementary to a sequence present in the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO. 2;
• c) removing any unbound labeled nucleic acid probe;
• and
• d) detecting the presence of labeled nucleic acid probe hybridized to the mRNA so as to thereby detect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the subject.

A method of detecting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a subject which comprises:

• a) obtaining a suitable sample of mRNA from the subject;
• b) reverse transcribing the mRNA to generate a single-stranded cDNA;
• c) contacting the single-stranded cDNA under hybridizing conditions with a labeled nucleic acid probe which:
• 1) is at least 15 nucleotides in length;
• and 2) hybridizes specifically to a nucleic acid having a sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:2;
• d) removing any unbound labeled nucleic acid probe;
• and
• e) detecting the presence of labeled nucleic acid probe hybridized to the cDNA so as to thereby detect detect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the subject.

A method of detecting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a subject which comprises:

• a) obtaining a suitable sample of mRNA from the subject;
• b) generating a double-stranded mRNA-cDNA duplex from the mRNA;
• c) contacting the duplex from (b) with one primer having a sequence which is complementary to a portion of the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:2 and a second primer having a sequence which comprises a different portion of the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:2;
• d) amplifying the nucleic acid from (c) using a polymerase chain reaction to obtain an amplification product;
• e) contacting the amplification product of (d) under hybridizing conditions with a labeled nucleic acid probe which:
• 1) is at least 15 nucleotides in length;
• 2) hybridizes specifically to a nucleic acid having a sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO. 2;
• f) removing any unbound labeled nucleic acid probe;
• and
• g) detecting the presence of labeled nucleic acid probe hybridized to the amplification product so as to thereby detect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the subject.