Endogenous retroviruses up-regulated in prostate cancer

• US 7,776,523 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2001
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Novartis Vaccines And Diagnostics Incorporated (Novartis Ag)
• Original Assignee: Novartis Vaccines And Diagnostics Incorporated (Novartis Ag)
• Inventors: Hardy, Stephen F., Escobedo, Jaime, Garcia, Pablo D., Williams, Lewis T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nolan; Patrick J
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUMPHREY, LOUISE WANG ZHIYING
• Application Number:
  US10/016,604
• Publication Number:
  US 20100136522A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,175 Days
• Field of Search: 435/91.2, 435/6, 536/23.1, 536/23.72, 536/24.3, 536/24.33
• US Class Current: 435/6.14
• CPC Class Codes: A61K 2039/505 comprising antibodies
• CPC Class Codes: A61K 2039/53 DNA (RNA) vaccination
• CPC Class Codes: A61K 39/00 Medicinal preparations containing antigens or antibodies materials for immunoassay G01N33/53
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 13/08 of the prostate
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 15/00 Drugs for genital or sexual disorders for disorders of sex hormones A61P5/24; Contraceptives
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 25/00 Drugs for disorders of the nervous system
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 3/10 for hyperglycaemia, e.g. antidiabetics
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 31/14 for RNA viruses
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 35/00 Antineoplastic agents
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 37/04 Immunostimulants
• CPC Class Codes: C07K 14/005 from viruses
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 2740/10021 Viruses as such, e.g. new isolates, mutants or their genomic sequences
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 2740/10022 New viral proteins or individual genes, new structural or functional aspects of known viral proteins or genes
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 7/00 Viruses; Bacteriophages; Compositions thereof; Preparation or purification thereof preparing medicinal viral antigen or antibody compositions, e.g. virus vaccines, A61K39/00
• CPC Class Codes: C12Q 1/6886 for cancer immunoassay for cancer G01N33/574
• CPC Class Codes: C12Q 1/702 for retroviruses
• CPC Class Codes: C12Q 2600/158 Expression markers
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2333/15 Retroviridae, e.g. bovine leukaemia virus, feline leukaemia virus, feline leukaemia virus, human T-cell leukaemia-lymphoma virus
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/57434 of prostate

Abstract

Human endogenous retroviruses of the HML-2 family show up-regulated expression in prostate tumors. This finding can be used in prostate cancer screening, diagnosis and therapy.

Claims

1. A method of screening for early stage prostate cancer, the method comprising a step of assaying, in a patient sample comprising prostate cells, an RNA comprising a Gag or Pol encoding sequence of a human endogenous mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-like subgroup 2 (HML-2) retrovirus, HERV-K (CH), wherein an increased level of said RNA of at least 150% relative to a control sample level of RNA from cells that are not prostate tumor cells indicates that the patient should undergo further testing for the presence of prostate cancer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the RNA comprises a Pol encoding sequence of HERV-K(CH).

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the RNA comprises a nucleotide sequence corresponding to a DNA sequence of SEQ ID NO:

26.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of assaying is preceded by a step of enriching RNA in the patient sample.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the expression product is detected using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Strand Displacement Amplification (SDA), Self Sustaining Sequence Replication (SSSR), Ligase Chain Reaction (LCR), Transcription Mediated Amplification (TMA) or Nucleic Acid Sequence Based Amplification (NASBA).

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the PCR is Reverse-Transcription PCR (RT-PCR).

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the RNA comprises a Gag encoding sequence of HERV-K(CH).