Nitto Boseki Co., Ltd.

Chiba University

Takeshi Tomonaga

Fumio Nomura

Takenori Ochiai

Hideaki Shimada

Katsuhiro Katayama

Tatsuya Ohashi

Kazuyuki Sogawa

Kazuyuki Matsushita

Toshihide Miura

Yoshihiko Igarashi

The present invention provides a new additional identification of a gene related to cancer expression and a diagnostic kit using the same.

Gene specific to cancer and diagnosis kit using the same

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel means for stably and surely inducing cell apoptosis using the c-myc gene as a target. The present invention relates to an apoptosis-inducing agent containing a protein that interacts with an FBP protein or a polynucleotide encoding the protein as an active ingredient and a method for inducing apoptosis, which comprises a step of causing the apoptosis-inducing agent to come into contact with cells.

Apoptosis-inducing agent and method for inducing apoptosis

Using the protein chip technology, biological samples such as sera are subjected to proteome analysis. Thus, a protein which is a human fibrinogen &#x3b1;-E chain decomposition product and has a molecular weight of 5,900, a protein which is an apolipoprotein AII decomposition product and has a molecular weight of 7,800, and a protein which is an apolipoprotein AI decomposition product and has a molecular weight of 28,000, each showing an increase or a decrease with the habit of drinking, are newly found out. By detecting or quantifying these proteins, a liver disease in a subject such as one having a problem of drinking can be diagnosed at the early stage.

Marker proteins for diagnosing liver disease and method of diagnosing liver disease using the same

Using two types of antibodies, i.e., a first antibody having a higher affinity for a target substance than for a competitive substance and a second antibody having a higher affinity for the competitive substance than for the target substance, a specimen is treated with these two antibodies. Then, the competitive substance in the specimen first binds to the second antibody and thus the ratio of the target substance to the competitive substance in the specimen is enlarged. As a result, the target substance becomes liable to bind to the first antibody and, in its turn, the reactivity of the target substance is elevated compared with the case of using the first antibody alone. Thus, the target substance in the specimen can be accurately assayed while avoiding the effects of the competitive substance contained in the specimen.

Immunoassay method and kit to be used therein

Growing community of inventors

Chiba, Japan

Takeshi Tomonaga