Essential fungal genes and their use
AssigneeMillennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
InventorsYigal Koltin, Victoria Gavrias
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed are essential Aspergillus polypeptides and genes (AN97, AN17, AN80, and AN85), as well as homologs of, which can be used to identify antifungal agents for treating fungal infections such as aspergillosis.
Claims24
An isolated nucleic acid encoding an AN97 polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence set forth as SEQ ID NOs:
- 2 or 29, as depicted in FIG. 1.
An isolated nucleic acid consisting essentially of a sequence selected from the group consisting of:
- (a) SEQ ID NO:
- 1, as depicted in FIG. 1, or degenerate variants thereof that encode the same amino acid sequence as SEQ ID NO:
- 1 encodes;
- (b) SEQ ID NO:
- 1, as depicted in FIG. 1, or degenerate variants thereof that encode the same amino acid sequence as SEQ ID NO:
- 1 encodes, wherein T is replaced by U;
- (c) SEQ ID NO:
- 3;
- and
- (d) SEQ ID NO:
- 3, wherein T is replaced by U.
An isolated nucleic acid from Aspergillus consisting essentially of the nucleic acid sequence set forth as SEQ ID NO:1, and encoding an AN97 polypeptide.
An isolated nucleic acid molecule, said molecule comprising the cDNA sequence contained within American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) accession number 209473.
A method for identifying an antifungal agent, the method comprising:
- (a) contacting a nucleic acid encoding an AN97 polypeptide with a test compound, wherein the AN97 polypeptide has the amino acid sequence set forth as SEQ ID NOs:
- 2 and 29;
- (b) detecting binding of the test compound to the nucleic acid;
- and
- (c) determining whether a test compound that binds to the nucleic acid inhibits growth of fungi, relative to growth of fungi cultured in the absence of the test compound that binds to the nucleic acid, wherein inhibition of growth is an indication that the test compound is an antifungal agent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.