Diagnosing and treating cancer cells using mutant viruses
OwnerThomas L. Benjamininventor
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Abstract
The invention provides methods for the identification of genes and their encoded proteins involved in the susceptibility to proliferative disorders, including cancer, using a tumor host range mutant virus (T-HR mutant). In addition, the invention provides methods for the diagnosis of abnormally proliferating cells in a subject, using a T-HR mutant. Furthermore, the T-HR mutants of the invention can also be used to kill cancer cells.
Claims28
A method of identifying a cellular protein involved in the susceptibility to proliferative disease, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) infecting a normal cell and an abnormally proliferating cell with a collection of uncharacterized mutant viruses;
- b) identifying a mutant virus from the collection that can grow in said abnormally proliferating cell and can not grow in said normal cell;
- and
- c) identifying the mutated viral gene or mutated protein in said virus, which allows said virus to grow on said abnormally proliferating cell;
- and
- d) screening to identify the cellular protein which interacts with the wild-type viral protein, but not said mutated viral protein.
A method of determining the presence or absence of an alteration in the genetic material of a cell, said method comprising determining whether a cell can act as a permissive host for the propagation of a characterized T-HR mutant, said T-HR mutant being capable of propagating in an abnormally proliferating cell and not being capable of propagating in a normal cell, wherein said characterized T-HR mutant is unable to propagate in a cell carrying a mutation in the retinoblastoma or p53 gene.
A method of killing an abnormally proliferating cell comprising the steps of:
- (i) contacting an abnormally proliferating cell with a T-HR mutant;
- and
- (ii) allowing said T-HR mutant to lyse said cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.