Institut De Recherches Cliniques De Montreal

Jacques Drouin

Alexandra Philips

Mario Maira

The present invention relates to intracellular receptors, and methods for the modulation of transcription using same. More particularly, the invention relates to the Nur family of nuclear receptors. In general aspects, the present invention relates to the idenfication of a physiologically relevant response element (RE) for Nur family members, an ER-10 element as well as to the idenfication of the type of protein-protein interactions of Nur family member, enabling their specific interaction with this RE-10 and tfeir modulation of transcription at physiologically relevant sites. The invention further relates to methods for modulating processes mediated by such nuclear receptors. In addition, the invention relates to oligonucleotide sequences that bind regulatory proteins that affect transcription, such as the Nur family of nuclear receptors, to DNA constructs comprising the oligonucleotide sequences, cells transfected with the DNA constructs, to methods of using same to provide for the controlled expression of heterologous genes, and for the detection and recovery of new regulatory proteins. The present invention further provides bioassays for the identification of compounds as potential agonists or antagonists of transcription by the Nur family of nuclear receptors Moreover, the invention relates to the dissection of protein-protein interactions or ligand-protein interactions involved in the modulation of transcription by the Nur family of nuclear receptors.

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Outremont, Canada

Jacques Drouin