Other

Shiozawa, Shunichi

Shunichi Shiozawa

Koichiro Komai

Kayo Osawa

Nozomi Takami

Akira Hashiramoto

Yasushi Miura

Mikiko Nakatsukasa

Hirofumi Yagi

Nao Matsuura

Yoshitake Konishi

Analysis is made on the DNA methylation of the region (including a promoter region) upstream from the translation initiation point of a rheumatoid arthritis-associated gene DR3 in human genome. As a result, it is found out that an allele-specific methylation occurs in a CpG sequence located about &#x2212;380 to &#x2212;180 bp upstream from translation initiation point (ATG) of the gene DR3. It is further found out that the CpG sequences downstream therefrom of the genes DR3 originating in healthy subjects are all in the unmethylated state, while methylated and unmethylated sequences are both observed in the genes DR3 originating in RA patients.

Methods for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis

An gene was identified as a RA disease susceptibility gene on Human Chromosome 8, the gene coding a protein that has an amino acid sequence shown in SEQ. ID NO. 1 and that has such mutation that glycine is inserted as a 269th amino acid in the sequence. Moreover, it was found that mutation of the gene and the protein relate to onset of RA. Achieved is a method of evaluating with high accuracy the onset or onset possibility of RA by using the mutation.

Disease susceptibility gene for rheumatoid arthritis, protein thereof, evaluation method and evaluation kit for evaluating onset possibility of rheumatoid arthritis by using those, and remedy and curing medicine for rheumatoid arthritis

The invention provides a method for therapy of rheumatoid arthritis, which comprises administering double-stranded oligonucleotide comprising the nucleotide sequence of 5'-TGAGTCA-3&#x2032; to a patient who suffers rheumatoid arthritis.

Method for therapy of rheumatoid arthritis

A genomic DNA involved in rheumatoid arthritis, a method of diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis or a method of judging onset risk of rheumatoid arthritis, and a diagnostic kit for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis or judging onset risk of rheumatoid arthritis, which genomic DNA comprises at least one of the following mutations in genomic DNA consisting of the base sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1:

Genomic DNAs participating in rheumatoid arthritis, method of diagnosing the same, method of judging onset risk and diagnostic kit for detecting the same

As a disease gene for rheumatoid arthritis present in human chromosome X and a method of diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis, a disease gene, which is a mutant of protooncogene Dbl transcribing an mRNA that encodes the cDNA of which the sequence from the 2679th to 2952nd bases is shown in SEQ ID NO: 1, which disease gene transcribes an mRNA encoding the cDNA of which the region from the 20th to 274th bases in SEQ ID NO: 1 is substituted with the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, and a method for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis by detecting the mRNA of the above-described gene or its expression product in a biological specimen, is provided.

Rheumatoid arthritis gene

The application provides genes causative of rheumatoid arthritis, which are located within &plusmn;1 centimorgan from DNA sequences to which the microsatellite markers D1S214, D1S253, D8S556, DXS1001, DXS1047, DXS1205, DXS1227 and/or DXS1232 are hybridized: a method for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis, including amplifying the genomic DNA of a subject by PCR using at least one of the microsatellite markers as primer and comparing the PCR products thereof with the PCR products prepared in the same manner using the genomic DNA of a normal control; and a method for identifying the causative factors of rheumatoid arthritis including the same as described above.

Growing community of inventors

Hyogo, Japan

Shunichi Shiozawa