Method of detecting a cancer cell by aberrant expression of a human k+ ion channel

Abstract

The present invention relates to a novel human K + ion channel, to nucleic acid molecules encoding the same and to vectors comprising said nucleic acid molecules. The invention additionally relates to antibodies specifically directed to the novel K + ion channel and to pharmaceutical compositions and diagnostic kits containing at least one of the above-mentioned components. Furthermore, the present invention relates to methods of treating a disease caused by malfunction of the polypeptide of the present invention or by the (over)expression of the nucleic acid molecule of the invention comprising administering an inhibitor of said (over)expression or of ion channel function or an inhibitor abolishing said malfunction to a patient in need thereof. Methods of devising drugs for treating or preventing the above-mentioned disease, methods of inhibiting cell proliferation and methods of prognosing cancer are additional embodiments comprised by the present invention. The invention also envisages specific antisense or gene therapies on the basis of the nucleic acid molecule of the invention for inhibiting undesired cellular proliferation, for example, in connection with cancer or in neurodegenerative diseases.

1 - 32 . (canceled) 
     
     
         33 . A method for detecting the presence of a cancer cell in a human subject comprising:
 (a) obtaining a tissue sample that is not derived from brain or placenta tissue from said subject and preparing an analyte from said tissue;   (b) incubating an antibody that binds specifically to a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:3 with said analyte; and   (c) detecting the presence of a cancer cell by the binding of said antibody to a polypeptide in said analyte.