Institut Pasteur

Jean-Pierre Vartanian

Simon Wain-Hobson

A method for enriching a mutant nucleic acid in a mixture of nucleic acids, wherein the method comprises: (a) providing a nucleic acid mixture comprising a parental nucleic acid and a mutant nucleic acid of the parental nucleic acid; and (b) amplifying the nucleic acids in the nucleic acid mixture by polymerase chain reaction (PCR); wherein the mutant nucleic acid is a G&#x2192;A mutant of the parental nucleic acid, which pairs with a fully complementary nucleic acid sequence to form an AT-rich nucleic acid variant of the parental nucleic acid; and wherein the AT-rich nucleic acid variant is denatured and selectively amplified by carrying out PCR using a denaturation temperature 1-3&#xb0; C. lower than the lowest denaturation temperature (T) that allows amplification of the parental nucleic acid to thereby enrich the mutant nucleic acid in the nucleic acid mixture.

Differential amplification of mutant nucleic acids by PCR in a mixture of nucleic acids

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for preventing the occurrence or progression of a cancer or pre-cancerous condition associated with expression, or over-expression of human cytidine deaminases of the APOBEC3 family. The invention also relates to drug screening assays designed to identify compounds that regulate the activity, or level of expression, of hA3A, hA3C and hA3H. The invention further relates to transgenic mice, as well as cells derived from said mice, that have been genetically engineered to express, or over-express hA3A, hA3C and/or hA3H. Such mice may be utilized to screen for, or identify, compounds that modulate the activity, or expression, of the human cytidine deaminases. The present invention also provides topical compositions such as cosmetic lotion, cr&#xe8;me, or sunscreen for use on the skin, which comprise one or more inhibitors of human cytidine deaminase activity. The present invention relates to a double stranded DNA obtained following opening up of its duplex structure, said DNA being edited with cellular protein normally or abnormally expressed in the nucleus of an eukaryotic cell. The mono stranded DNA derived from the said double stranded DNA is a part of the present invention.

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Paris, France

Jean-Pierre Vartanian