Claims
- 1. A method for screening candidate agents that modulate interaction of RGS and Gαq, said method comprising:
(a) contacting a screening assay system comprising a polypeptide selected from RGS and Gαq with a candidate agent under conditions whereby, but for the presence of the agent, the system provides a reference activity; and (b) detecting a candidate agent-biased activity of the system; wherein a difference between the agent-biased activity and the reference activity indicates that the candidate agent modulates interaction of RGS and Gαq.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said assay system comprises RGS and Gαq and said reference activity detects binding of RGS to Gαq.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein said activity is a GAP/GTPase activity.
- 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said contacting in (a) comprises administering said candidate agent to cultured host cells that have been genetically engineered to express said polypeptide.
- 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the screening assay system is a cell-free system comprising purified polypeptide.
- 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the screening assay system is used in a high throughput format to screen test agents in a compound library.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the activity is selected from carbachol-induced activity and IP3 activity.
- 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the reference activity comprises a measurement of muscle contraction.
- 9. The method of claim 8 wherein said muscle is bladder muscle strips.
- 10. The method of claim 1 wherein said polypeptide comprises an amino acid sequence having at least 80 % sequence identity with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NOS:_(RGS & Gαq).
- 11. The method of claim I further comprising: testing the candidate agent in an animal model defective for RGS or Gαq, and detecting phenotypic changes relative to control animals.
- 12. A method of modulating the interaction of an RGS polypeptide and a Gαq polypeptide comprising the step of contacting the RGS polypeptide or the Gαq polypeptide with a compound identified by the method of claim 1.
- 13. A method of modulating the interaction of an RGS polypeptide and a Gαq polypeptide comprising the step of contacting the RGS polypeptide or the Gαq polypeptide with an agent capable of modulating the interaction of the RGS polypeptide and the Gαq.
- 14. A method for identifying agents that modulate urinary incontinence, said method comprising:
(a) contacting a screening assay system comprising a polypeptide selected form RGS and Gαq with a candidate agent under conditions whereby, but for the presence of the agent, the system provides a reference activity; and (b) detecting a candidate agent-biased activity of the system; and (c) testing if the candidate agent that results in the biased activity detected in (b) modulates urinary incontinence.
- 15. The method of claim 12 wherein said assay system comprises RGS and Gαq and reference activity detects binding of RGS to Gαq.
- 16. The method of claim 12 wherein said activity is a GAP/GTPase activity.
- 17. The method of claim 12 wherein said contacting in (a) comprises administering said candidate agent to cultured host cells that have been genetically engineered to express said polypeptide.
- 18. The method of claim 12 wherein said testing in (c) is performed by administering said candidate agent to carbachol-induced bladder strips, and a reduction in muscle contraction identifies the candidate agent as capable of modulating urinary incontinence.
- 19. A method for modulating urinary incontinence comprising contacting a vertebrate animal predetermined to have urinary incontinence with an agent that specifically binds a protein selected from the group consisting of RGS and Gαq.
- 20. The method of claim 17 in which the agent is a chemical binding agent.
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application is entitled to and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/352,720, filed Jan. 28, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60352720 |
Jan 2002 |
US |