Promoter sequences for urocortin II and the use thereof

Abstract

Various human urocortin II promoter sequences are disclosed. Nucleic acids and host cells that contain the promoter sequences are also disclosed. Further disclosed are various methods involving the use of these sequences. Also disclosed are methods of modulating the activity of a human urocortin II promoter sequence and methods of modulating urocortin II expression in a cell.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 438,803 filed on May 15, 2003, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 381,121, filed on May 16, 2002, and U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 423,642, filed on Nov. 1, 2002, both of which are herein incorporated by reference.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] This invention was made with United States government support awarded by the following agency: NIH MH40855. The United States has certain rights in this invention.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] In modern society stress and its consequences are prevalent and result in considerable distress and alterations in physical health and social and occupational functioning. At its extreme, stress can lead to disabling neuropsychiatric problems which include depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and other illnesses (Mitchell, 1998;...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] Besides controlling how much UCN II is expressed, the promoter region of the human UCN II gene is also responsible for determining where in the body and when during development UCN II is expressed. Thus, fragments of the human UCN II gene promoter region disclosed herein can be used to identify those elements that are important for tissue and development stage specific expression by conducting experiments in cells from specific tissues and development stages. Once these elements are identified, agents that can alter tissue and development stage specific expression can be identified. These agents may be advantageous in treating stress-related problems over prior art treatment strategies because the agents target UCN II expression in specific regions that are most important in an illness. Thus side effects seen in prior art receptor antagonists treatment due to indiscriminate inhibition of the receptor activity throughout the brain and body can be avoided. For example, the locus coeruleus is located deep in the brain and is thought to be pivotal in mediating the effects of CRF and related peptides in depression and anxiety. Drugs that specifically target UCN II in the locus coeruleus will leave other sites (cortex, brain stem, heart, and hypothalamus) unaffected.

Problems solved by technology

In modern society stress and its consequences are prevalent and result in considerable distress and alterations in physical health and social and occupational functioning.

In addition, stress can negatively impact cardiovascular function, immune function and gastrointestinal physiology (Tache et al., 2001; Beglinger and Degen, 2002; Coste et al., 2002; Gasparotto et al., 2002; Vanitallie, 2002).

This high incidence of stress-related problems is reflected by the fact that approximately 50% of visits to primary care doctors are stress and / or psychologically related.

However, these treatments still suffer from lack of efficacy in approximately 30% of the individuals treated.

In addition, these treatments have bothersome side-effects (50% have marked sexual dysfunction) which make treatment with these drugs unacceptable for many individuals.

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