Recent Patents on DNA & Gene Sequences (Discontinued) - Volume 5, Issue 3, 2011

The Federal Circuit uses particular patent doctrines as policy levers to control the nature of the nation's patent output. To this end, the Court will actively discriminate in it's application of the Patent Act, depending on the nature of the technology before it. One example of such a lever is the written description doctrine. Most recently, the court has looked to this doctrine in an effort to limit the scope of biotechnology patents in general and DNA patents in particular. This paper provides a cursory review of this law regarding the enigmatic written description requirement, examining particularly its history and purposes. It then examines some of the recent cases that allude to the Federal Circuit's particular efforts in the biotechnology industry. Finally, it presents a potentially problematic technology for future implementation of discriminatory practices by the court.

Storage of human biological samples and personal data associated with them is organised in Biobanks. In spite of expectation given by biobanks in medicine, their management involved some ethical questions, for example, the need for policies to regulate economic interests, potential commercial use of data (including patents), private sector financing, ownership of samples and benefit sharing. In the context of contributing to the general public interest, we can consider the act of giving biological material to biobanks as a donation, in which the donation constitutes part of a generalised form of reciprocity in which the act of donation contributes to society's common good. Starting from this perspective, we move into a different situation represented by the biobanking of umbilical cord blood for personal use. We used the example of the private biobanking of umbilical cords to demonstrate the restrictive utility of the collection and preservation of cord blood for personal use in private biobanks, in the context of society's common good. In summary, a system based on solidarity seems to be able to guarantee necessary levels of supply for the donation of biological material to biobanks.

There has been rapidly increasing interest in innate immunity in recent years. Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes that constitute a major component of the innate immune system. NK cells are mainly modulated through different receptors and cytokines. The killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) represent the largest category of NK cell receptors. KIR function is mainly regulated by binding both classical MHC I (human leukocyte antigen, HLA A, B and C) and also non-classical MHC. Some KIRs are specific to certain HLA subtypes. Questions about how the NK cells sense self-antigen, infection, and altered cells, and how a protective immune response can be induced are being answered at the molecular level. Research has revealed the central role of innate immunity in the pathogenesis of many autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, as well as B-cell malignancies, with the emergence of recent developments for KIR characterization, disease monitoring, and treatment. In this paper, we report three recent patents focused on KIR applications: the first one is targeted at the determination of the complex KIR haplotypes by using next generation sequencing; the second patent represents a practical approach for genotyping and treatment of the main KIR-related autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases; and the last patent describes the possible contributions of KIR to promising combination immunotherapies.

Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation play an important role in the regulation of growth factor and cytokine signal transduction to modulate cell proliferation, differentiation, survival, and apoptosis. In some cellular systems, the information suggests that EGFR, somatostatin receptors, SHP-1, Akt and PI3K can regulate carcinogenesis implied process through regulated the activity of NF-κB. Current patents related to signaling pathway that includes somatostatin receptors, phosphotyrosine phosphatases, tyrosine kinases, AKT/PKB and PI3K are focusing in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Many recent patented techniques include inhibition, antagonism or alternative therapeutic methods. Furthermore, it is necessary to deepen understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in cancer to develop other alternative therapies focusing not only on new inhibitors.

Visual impairment and blindness impose substantial morbidity and premature mortality on the population [1]. The direct costs for vision disorders have been shown to be more than the cost of coronary heart disease, stroke, arthritis or depression and were estimated to be $9.85 billion in 2004 in Australia. Hence it is important to identify the causes of common eye diseases and understand their aetiology which in turn would allow determination of better management strategies and treatment options. Age related Macular Degeneration, Cataract, Diabetic Retinopathy, Glaucoma and uncorrected refractive errors represent the majority of the visual impairment and blindness in Australia and various parts of the world. This article reviews the gene patents available for these eye conditions and highlights the important discoveries that have so far contributed to our understanding of these diseases and provides valuable information as to where research will be heading in the future.

D-tagatose is a natural monosaccharide with a low caloric value and has an anti-hyperglycemiant effect. This hexose has potential applications both in pharmaceutical and agro-food industries. However, the use of D-tagatose remains limited by its production cost. Many production procedures including chemical and biological processes were developed and patented. The most profitable production way is based on the use of L-arabinose isomerase which allows the manufacture of D-tagatose with an attractive rate. Future developments are focused on the generation of L-arabinose isomerases having biochemical properties satisfying the industrial applications. This report provides a brief review of the most recent patents that have been published relating to this area.

Improved knowledge of the molecular biology of viruses, including recent gains in virus sequence data analysis, has greatly contributed to recent innovations in medical diagnostics, therapeutics, drug development and other related areas. Virus sequences have been used for the development of vaccines and antiviral agents to block the spread of viral infections, as well as to target and battle chronic diseases such as cancer. Virus sequences are now routinely employed in a wide array of RNA silencing technologies. Viruses can also be engineered into expression vectors which in turn can be used as protein production platforms as well as delivery vehicles for gene therapies. This review article outlines a number of patents that have been recently issued with respect to virus sequence data and describes some of their biotechnological applications.

Hsp70 classes of molecular chaperones are highly conserved in all organisms and play an essential role in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Hsp70s assist nascent chain protein folding and denatured proteins, as well as the import of proteins to the organelles, and solubilization of aggregated proteins. ATPase function is required for Hsp70 function. Hsp70s use ATP hydrolysis driven mechanism for substrate protein binding and release. Various Hsps are unregulated in cancers but their significance for tumor growth is poorly understood. Studies have linked Hsp70 to several types of carcinoma. Human Hsp70s allow proliferation of cancer cells and suppress apoptotic and senescence pathways. This review presents Hsp70s role for growth of transformed cells and the current state of Hsp70 as a drug target along with recent patents in humans in this particular area.

The patents annotated in this section have been selected from various patent data bases. These recent patents are relevant to the articles published in this journal issue, categorized by different biotechnology methods, processes and techniques involved.