Therapy and diagnosis of conditions related to telomere length and/or telomerase activity
AssigneeBoard of Regents, The University of Texas System
InventorsMichael D. West, Jerry Shay, Woodring Wright
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Method and compositions are provided for the determination of telomere length and telomerase activity, as well as the ability to inhibit telomerase activity in the treatment of proliferative diseases. Particularly, primers are elongated under conditions which minimize interference from other genomic sequences, so as to obtain accurate determinations of telomeric length or telomerase activity. In addition, compositions are provided for intracellular inhibition of telomerase activity.
Claims33
A method for diagnosis of a stage of disease progression in an individual having a disease associated with an increased rate of proliferation of a cell population, said method comprising steps of:
- (a) measuring telomere lengths of telomeres from a cell or tissue sample obtained from said individual to obtain a measured telomere length:
- (b) comparing said measured telomere length to a control telomere length obtained by measuring telomere length ill a control sample;
- and
- (c) correlating differences between said measured telomere length and said control telomere length with said stage of disease progression.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.