Recent Patents on DNA & Gene Sequences (Discontinued) - Volume 2, Issue 3, 2008

Organisms with DNA genomes encode one or more DNA polymerases that are essential enzymes for chromosome replication, DNA repair and recombination. The ability of DNA polymerases to copy DNA templates has been exploited in a variety of in vitro reactions to sequence, amplify, mutate, label and recombine DNA, and in several other applications that are fundamental to molecular biology. Because natural DNA polymerases may have activities that interfere with in vitro applications or their substrate specificity is too narrow, DNA polymerases have been modified for specific applications. Patents are reviewed here on natural and variant DNA polymerases and their uses.

Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of death and disability in the developed world. Despite the use of aggressive therapies, a high morbidity and mortality with vascular origin persists. It is necessary to find new therapeutic targets complementing the existing ones to solve this sanitary problem. Basic and clinical investigation into many of the diverse aspects of cardiovascular drug discovery employs varied approaches aimed at determining physiologic and pathophysiologic efficacy of candidate agents for therapeutic utility with the ultimate hope of identifying those agents capable of exerting salutary influence upon cardiac and vascular tissues. We collected the articles published based on gene patenting in the primary prevention of vascular diseases. Promising compounds may then be used for prophylactic cardiovascular protection and for the treatment of various disorders including endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, hypertension and dyslipidaemia.

Aptamers, the oligonucleotides (DNA/RNA) that bind to target molecules with high specificity and affinity, have been a focus of therapeutic research for the last two decades. The magnitude of scientific and commercial interest shown for aptamers is not surprising because aptamers have several advantages over other curative modalities, especially antibodies. Patent activity in this field has also shown an exponential growth. Aptamers against a broad range of diseasecausing pathogens and proteins have been patented. These have potential use as a biomarker, therapeutics and diagnostics. As drugs they have shown commendable results in cell and animal models, a few of them undergoing clinical trials. In this review, we discuss upon all important patents filed on therapeutic aptamers and SELEX technology employed to synthesize them. We have classified them in categories based upon their target or the diseased condition they apt for. These patents provide insight into the development that occurred in transformation of aptamers as therapeutic entities and reinforces the potential they have.

One of the grand challenges of modern biology is to develop accurate and reliable technologies for a rapid screening of DNA sequence variation. This topic of research is of prime importance for the detection and identification of species in numerous fields of investigation, such as taxonomy, epidemiology, forensics, archaeology or ecology. Molecular identification is also central for the diagnosis, treatment and control of infections caused by different pathogens. In recent years, a variety of DNA-based approaches have been developed for the identification of individuals in a myriad of taxonomic groups. Here, we provide an overview of most commonly used assays, with emphasis on those based on DNA hybridizations, restriction enzymes, random PCR amplifications, species-specific PCR primers and DNA sequencing. A critical evaluation of all methods is presented focusing on their discriminatory power, reproducibility and user-friendliness. Having in mind that the current trend is to develop small-scale devices with a high-throughput capacity, we briefly review recent technological achievements for DNA analysis that offer great potentials for the identification of species.

A biological pathway is mainly composed of metabolic pathway, transcription regulatory pathway and signal transduction pathway. With the development of systems biology, many computational algorithms and systems that used to handle and predict biological pathway have been developed by many researchers and organizations in related fields on bioinformatics. By the assistance of these tools and systems, biologists may save tremendous time and money from the traditional wet biological experiments, especially in pathway modeling and drug finding. However, the computational patents on biological pathway mainly focus on mining, storing, modeling and visualizing the biological information, such as DNA sequences, the protein information, compounds and the interactions between them. Furthermore, literature information which is related to biological pathways is also integrated in many patents for the knowledge of pathways. This review summarizes the recent patents on biological pathway and catalogs them into three subdirectories based on their topics. The first is on the pathway prediction and identification patents for predicting the pathways in unknown organisms or identify the elements in pathways. The second includes some patents in modeling the pathways and simulating them to analyze the biological actions. The last one includes other patents constructing pathway databases or providing methods for pathway visualization.

The JAK/STAT pathway plays an important role in the regulation of proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells. The JAK family consists of four different JAK kinases:JAK1, JAK2, JAK3, and tyrosine kinase 2. Recent studies have found that JAK2V617F mutation is present in approximately 90-95% of patients with polycythemia vera (PV), and also in approximately half of those with essential thrombocythemia (ET) and primary myelofibrosis (PMF). In addition, several mutations of JAK2 exon 12 have also been reported. The discovery of these molecular markers has not only greatly improved the diagnosis of these chronic myeloproliferative diseases, but also evoked considerable enthusiasm for the development of specific therapies targeted at those mutant genes and their product. In this review, we will discuss recent patents relating to JAK2 mutations including patents on the methods for identifying JAK2-specific polynucleotide sequences and novel pharmacological JAK2 inhibitors.

Plant defensins are a family of small, cysteine-rich and basic proteins. Proteins of the family constitute the major innate immune system of plants and insects. The most significant feature of the family is the conserved cysteine scaffold and one α-helix and a triple strand anti parallel β-sheet connected by the scaffold. Proteins of the family display anti-microbial and anti-fungal activities and a broad spectrum of biological functions. The proteins also demonstrate ultra stable proprieties even in extreme environments. In the past twenty years, patents on the proteins and their applications have increased as technologies have been developed. By utilizing protein engineering approach, medical applications of proteins of the family have been developed. By reviewing patents on proteins of the family, the application development trend of the protein family is traced. Currently, the development of proteins of the family is still in the initial and discovery stage. For their excellent physical and chemical proprieties, it is believed that application of the proteins in the biomedical area should have a high potential and the future of proteins of the plant defensin family.

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