Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Quark Biotech, Inc.

Orna Mor

Elena Feinstein

Paz Einat

Rami Skaliter

Lion Novak

The invention relates to a double-stranded compound, preferably an oligoribonucleotide (siRNA), which down-regulates the expression of a human TGaseII gene at the post-transcriptional level. The invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound, or a vector capable of expressing the oligoribonucleotide compound, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The present invention also contemplates a method of treating a patient suffering from a fibrotic disease such as pulmonary, kidney and liver fibrosis or ocular, scarring comprising administering to the patient the pharmaceutical composition in a therapeutically effective dose so as to thereby treat the patient. The invention also relates to treatment of fibrotic and other diseases by use of antibodies to TGaseII polypeptide.

Oligoribonucleotides and methods of use thereof for treatment of fibrotic conditions and other diseases

There is provided a method of diagnosing the presence of bladder cancer in a patient by analyzing a tissue sample from the patient for the presence of a least one expressed gene wherein the presence of the expressed gene is indicative of bladder cancer. Also provided by the present invention is a polynucleotide sequence whose expression is indicative of bladder cancer. A marker for bladder cancer is also provided. There are also provided methods of diagnosing bladder cancer by screening for the presence of at least one expressed gene wherein the presence of the expressed gene is indicative of bladder cancer. Methods of treating and regulating bladder cancer-associated pathologies by administering to a patient a therapeutically effective amount of chemical compound are also provided.

Methods of diagnosing bladder cancer

The present invention provides a method of identifying clones encoding for membranal and secreted proteins by deriving probes from membrane-bound polysomes and free-polysomes, and performing a microarray-based comparison of the relative abundance of the different RNA species. Analysis of the results of such comparison and resultant identification of clones encoding for membranal or secreted proteins, provides an efficient tool for identifying targets of drug development. The present invention further provides a method of augmenting a microarray analysis by utilizing RNA extracted from specific subcellular compartments as templates for DNA probes. The method may be used together with conventional differential analysis techniques for improvement of their analysis and gene identification functions.

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Kiryat Ono, Israel

Orna Mor