US 2004/0166509 A1 · Detecting hormonally active compounds

Abstract

Purified nucleic acids that are responsive to estrogenic or androgenic agents and derived from fish have been cloned and sequenced. cDNAs that correspond to these nucleic acids are placed on an array containing a set of control genes. Using labeled cDNA probes generated from RNA isolated from control fish and fish exposed to estrogenic compounds, expression levels of the genes responsive to estrogenic compounds are measured. The arrays are useful for monitoring the presence of estrogenic contaminants that are hormonally active in the environment, as well as for screening compounds with estrogenic activity.

Claims39

Dependent claims

A method for detecting the presence of an agent having estrogenic or androgenic activity in a sample, the method comprising the steps of:

(A) providing at least one fish cell which was exposed to the sample;
(B) analyzing the at least one fish cell for expression of at least one gene wholly or partially encoded by a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs:
1-560;
and
(C) comparing the expression of the at least one gene in the cell compared to the expression of the at least gene in a control cell not exposed to the sample or an agent having estrogenic or androgenic activity, wherein a difference in the expression of the at least one gene in the at least one fish cell compared to the expression of the at least one gene in the control cell indicates that the sample contains an agent having estrogenic or androgenic activity.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Detecting hormonally active compounds

Life of this patent

Detecting hormonally active compounds

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims39