Method for predicting the response to a therapy

An in vitro method for predicting if an immunomodulatory oligonucleotide can re-sensitize a patient suspected of being steroid resistant to the action of steroids, wherein the method comprises the steps of,

• isolating cells from a sample taken from said patient;
• cultivating said isolated cells in the presence of a steroid and an immunomodulatory oligonucleotide;
• determining an expression level of at least one marker gene from said cultivated cells, wherein said marker gene is a marker for re-sensitization to the action of steroids;
• and
• comparing said expression level of said at least one marker gene from said cultivated cells to an expression level of said at least one marker gene obtained from the cultivation of cells from healthy persons in the presence of said steroid and said immunomodulatory oligonucleotide or to a normalized expression level value of said expression level of said at least one marker gene obtained from the cultivation of cells from healthy persons in the presence of said steroid and said immunomodulatory oligonucleotide;
• wherein a similarity in the compared expression levels indicates that the immunomodulatory oligonucleotide is capable of re-sensitizing said patient to the action of steroids.