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US 5,846,723 AGranted
Methods for detecting the RNA component of telomerase
AssigneeGeron Corporation
InventorsNam Woo Kim, Fred Wu, James T. Kealey, Ronald Pruzan, Scott L. Weinrich
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods of detecting the RNA component of telomerase, diagnosing cancer, and determining its prognosis using polynucleotides that hybridize to the RNA component of mammalian telomerase in a sample.
Claims38
A method for detecting an RNA component of human telomerase (hTR) in a sample, comprising the steps of:
- (a) contacting the sample with a polynucleotide of at least 7 to about 50 nucleotides in length comprising a sequence that specifically hybridizes to a nucleotide sequence within an accessible region of hTR, wherein the sequence within an accessible region is a sequence selected from nucleotide positions 137-196, 290-319, and 350-380 of hTR but that does not specifically hybridize to a template region of hTR, and
- (b) detecting whether the polynucleotide has specifically hybridized to hTR;
- whereby specific hybridization provides a detection of hTR in the sample.
A method for diagnosing cancer in a patient, comprising the steps of:
- (a) determining a diagnostic value by detecting the RNA component of human telomerase (hTR) in a patient sample, wherein detecting hTR comprises the steps of:
- (i) contacting the sample with a polynucleotide of at least 7 to about 50 nucleotides in length comprising a sequence that specifically hybridizes to a nucleotide sequence within an accessible region of hTR, wherein the sequence within an accessible region is a sequence selected from nucleotide positions 137-196, 290-319, and 350-380 of hTR, but that does not specifically hybridize to a template region of hTR, and
- (ii) detecting specific hybridization of the polynucleotide to hTR;
- whereby specific hybridization provides a determination that the sample contains hTR, and
- (b) comparing the diagnostic value with a normal range of hTR in control cells;
- whereby a diagnostic value that is above the normal range is diagnostic of cancer.
3 more elements
A method for providing a prognosis for a cancer patient, comprising the steps of:
- (a) determining the amount of the RNA component of human telomerase (hTR) per cancer cell in a patient sample comprising cancer cells by:
- (i) contacting the sample with a polynucleotide of at least 7 nucleotides to about 50 nucleotides in length comprising a sequence that specifically hybridizes to a nucleotide sequence within an accessible region of hTR, wherein the sequence within an accessible region is a sequence selected from nucleotide positions 137-196, 290-319, and 350-380 of hTR, but that does not specifically hybridize to a template region of hTR,
- (ii) determining the amount of polynucleotide that has specifically hybridized to hTR, and
- (iii) correlating the amount of polynucleotide with an amount of hTR per cancer cell in the sample;
- and
- (b) comparing the amount of hTR per cancer cell with a prognostic value of hTR per cancer cell consistent with a prognosis for the cancer;
- whereby an amount of hTR per cell in the sample that is at the prognostic value provides the particular prognosis.
4 more elements
A method of determining the amount of the RNA component of human telomerase (hTR) in a sample, comprising the steps of:
- (a) amplifying from the sample a sequence from an accessible region of hTR, wherein the region comprises nucleotide positions 137-196, 290-319, and 350-380 of hTR, to produce amplified hTR,
- (b) amplifying from the sample a control polynucleotide to produce amplified control polynucleotide,
- (c) determining an amount of amplified hTR and an amount of amplified control polynucleotide in the sample, and
- (d) normalizing the amount of amplified hTR with respect to the amount of amplified control polynucleotide to provide a normalized amount of hTR,
- whereby the normalized amount of hTR provides a determination of the amount of hTR in the sample.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.