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US 5,648,215 AGranted
Telomerase diagnostic methods
AssigneeBoard of Regents, The University of Texas System
InventorsMichael D. West, Jerry Shay, Woodring E. Wright
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The presence of telomerase activity in a human somatic tissue or cell sample is positively correlated with the presence of cancer and can be used to diagnose the course of disease progression in a patient.
Claims12
A method for detecting whether a human breast, prostate, colon, or lung tissue sample contains cancerous cells, said method comprising
- (a) preparing a cell extract from said tissue sample;
- (b) incubating an aliquot of said cell extract in a reaction mixture comprising a telomerase substrate and a buffer in which telomerase can catalyze the extension of said telomerase substrate;
- (c) determining whether said telomerase substrate has been extended in step (b) by addition of telomeric repeat sequences;
- and
- (d) correlating presence of cancerous cells in said sample with the addition of telomeric repeat sequences to said telomerase substrate and absence of cancerous cells in said sample with no addition of telomeric repeat sequences to said telomerase substrate.
2 more elements
A method for determining prognosis of a patient known to have cancer by detecting whether a tissue sample contains cancerous cells, said method comprising
- (a) preparing a cell extract from said tissue sample;
- (b) incubating an aliquot of said cell extract in a reaction mixture comprising a telomerase substrate and a buffer in which telomerase can catalyze the extension of said telomerase substrate;
- (c) determining whether said telomerase substrate has been extended in step (b) by addition of telomeric repeat sequences;
- (d) correlating presence of cancerous cells in said sample with the addition of telomeric repeat sequences to said telomerase substrate and absence of cancerous cells in said sample with no addition of telomeric repeat sequences to said telomerase substrate;
- and
- (e) correlating a negative prognosis in said patient with a presence of cancerous cells in said sample, and a positive prognosis in said patient with an absence of cancerous cells in said patient.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.