FRIEDMAN, JEFFREY M.,ZHANG, YIYING,PROENCA, RICARDO,MAFFEI, MARGHERITA,HALAAS, JEFFREY L.,GAJIWALA, KETAN,BURLEY, STEPHEN K.
申请号：
CA2195955
公开号：
CA2195955C
申请日:
1995.08.17
申请国别(地区):
CA
年份:
2012
代理人:
摘要：
The present invention relates generally to the control of body weight ofanimals including mammals and humans, and more particularly to materialsidentified herein as modulators of weight, and to the diagnostic andtherapeutic uses to which such modulators may be put. In its broadest aspect,the present invention relates to the elucidation and discovery of nucleotidesequences, and proteins putatively expressed by such nucleotides or degeneratevariations thereof, that demonstrate the ability to participate in the controlof mammalian body weight. The nucleotide sequences in object represent thegenes corresponding to the murine and human OB gene, that have been postulatedto play a critical role in the regulation of body weight and adiposity.Preliminary data, presented herein, suggests that the polypeptide product ofthe gene in question functions as a hormone. The present invention furtherprovides nucleic acid molecules for use as molecular probes, or as primers forpolymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, i.e., synthetic or naturaloligonucleotides. In further aspects, the present invention provides a cloningvector, which comprises the nucleic acids of the invention； and a bacterial,insect, or a mammalian expression vector, which comprises the nucleic acidmolecules of the invention, operatively associated with an expression controlsequence. Accordingly, the invention further relates to a bacterial or amammalian cell transfected or transformed with an appropriate expressionvector, and correspondingly, to the use of the above-mentioned constructs inthe preparation of the modulators of the invention. Also provided areantibodies to the OB polypeptide. Moreover, a method for modulating bodyweight of a mammal is provided. In specific examples, genes encoding twoisoforms of both the murine and human OB polypeptides are provided.
