Glutathione-S-transferase mu as a measure of drug resistance
AssigneeOxi-Gene, Inc.
InventorRonald W. Pero
Life of this patent
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AssigneeOxi-Gene, Inc.
InventorRonald W. Pero
Estimating the term…
It has been discovered that by determining or measuring a person's glutathione-s-transferase (GST) mu activity one can determine or measure the individual's resistance to drugs, particularly to chemotherapeutic drugs. Approximately 50% of the human population exhibit substantially no GST mu activity, with the remaining 50% showing GST mu activity. This remaining 50% of the population accordingly, when treated with drugs, such as a chemotherapeutic drug for cancer therapy, show less effective response to the drug therapy than the other 50% of the population which have substantially no GST mu activity, since GST mu tends to deactivate drugs. Accordingly, a person having GST mu activity would exhibit drug resistance and would not benefit as much by or be as good a candidate for cancer chemotherapy as a person who has no GST mu activity.
A method of determining the resistance of a human individual to a nitrosourcea which comprises determining the GST mu activity of the individual, to establish a measured value of the individual's GST mu activity, and comparing said measured value with a predetermined value, the presence of a GST mu activity above said predetermined value indicting that the individual is resistant to the nitrosourcea.
A method of determining the resistance of a human individual to tauromustine, comprising determining GST mu activity of liver tissue of the individual using tSBO, to establish a measured value of said activity expressed in nmol/min/mg protein and comparing said measured value with a value of 4, a measured value above 4 indicating that the individual is resistant to tauromustine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.