Cornell Research Foundation Inc.

Paul Szabo

Marc E Weksler

Hartmut M Hanauske-Abel

Robert Walter Grady

Linda Andrus

Axel Hanauske

The invention provides a method for assessing risk of a neurodegenerative disease or disorder in a subject. The method comprises comparing a level of anti-&bgr;-amyloid-42 (A&bgr; ) antibody in a biological sample from a subject to a normal level, wherein a lower level in the biological sample from the subject indicates the risk of the disease or disorder. In a specific embodiment, the disease or disorder is Alzheimer's Disease (AD).

Anti-amyloid peptide antibody based diagnosis and treatment of a neurological disease or disorder

The present invention is directed to methods which employ inhibition of the post-translational hypusine formation in the intracelluar protein eIF-5A, for the purpose of suppressing infections by viruses that parasitize eIF-5A so as to promote their own replication. Intentional inhibition of the post-translational formation of hypusine in infected host cells with compounds generically termed `hypusine inhibitors` not only selectively suppresses the production of viral proteins and of infectious viral particles, but also causes, particularly after hypusine inhibitor withdrawal, apoptosis in such virally-infected cells. Each of these methods, respectively, involves administering, to eukaryotic cells, tissues, or individuals, an agent which blocks the post-translational intracellular formation of hypusine, in an amount sufficient to: suppress biosynthesis of bioactive eIF-5A, suppress translational interaction of eIF-5A with viral elements of nucleic acid and/or protein structure, inhibit biosynthesis of viral proteins of Rev-dependent lentiviruses or of viruses dependent on interaction of eIF-5A with viral elements of nucleic acid and/or protein structure, inhibit replication of Rev-dependent lentiviruses or of viruses dependent on interaction of eIF-5A with viral elements of nucleic acid and/or protein structure, and induce apoptosis of virally-infected cells. This agent can be a compound of Formulae I or II and derivatives thereof as follows: ##STR1## R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, and R.sub.4 each individually represent a hydrogen, an alkyl, alkenyl, or alkoxy group containing 1 to about 8 carbon atoms, an aryl, aralkyl, or cycloalkyl group containing about 5 to 12 carbon atoms, or a carboalkoxy or carbamyl group containing up to 8 carbon atoms, or a peptide or peptidomimetic moiety containing 10 to about 30 carbon atoms.

Method of inhibiting viral replication in eukaryotic cells and of

The present invention relates to an isolated protein or polypeptide capable of production by T cells and capable of ultimately activating production of B cells. The present invention further provides an isolated DNA molecule encoding the protein or polypeptide capable of production by T cells and capable of ultimately activating production of B cells. The isolated DNA molecule can be inserted as a heterologous DNA in an expression vector forming a recombinant DNA expression system for producing the protein or polypeptide. Likewise, the heterologous DNA can be incorporated in a cell to achieve this objective. The isolated protein or polypeptide of the present invention can be combined with a pharmaceutically-acceptable carrier or used alone for administration to mammals for activating production of B cells.

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Linden, NJ, United States of America

Paul Szabo