| WARF: P06127US |  |
| Expression System for Enzymes that Desaturate Fatty Acids |
| INVENTORS | • | Brian Fox, Pablo Sobrado, Yong Chang |
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) is seeking commercial partners interested in developing a simplified system for expressing desaturase enzymes and assaying their activity.
OVERVIEW
The rate-limiting enzyme in monounsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis, stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD), is thought to influence obesity, atherosclerosis and other metabolic disorders associated with changes in lipid composition. Inhibitors of SCD may be useful in treating diseases such as obesity and diabetes, but little is currently known about the factors that affect SCD expression. This is due in part to the lack of an effective system that would allow the isolation and determination of activity of each SCD enzyme.
THE INVENTION
UW-Madison researchers have developed a simplified system for expressing desaturase enzymes and assaying their activity. The system includes a vector that has been genetically engineered to express enzymes involved in fatty acid desaturation. The vector comprises at least one desaturase gene, such as SCD, and at least one oxidoreductase gene, such as cytochrome b5 or cytochrome b5 reductase. The genes may be linked to the same or different promoters, and the coding regions of the genes may be altered. The vector is introduced into an organism suitable for the expression of the desaturase system. Alternatively, an expression kit can be used for cell-free protein expression. The expressed enzymes are then contacted with a fatty acid to determine their effect on 18:1-CoA production, a standard measure of desaturase activity. This helps researchers learn more about how SCD and other desaturases work, and may lead to the identification of novel SCD inhibitors for the treatment of diseases like diabetes.
APPLICATIONS
- Evaluating desaturase activity
KEY BENEFITS
- Provides simpler, less costly and more reproducible in vitro assays
- Unlike previous assays, this system can be completely cell- and microsome-free.
- Useful to identify modulators of SCD activity
- Enables high throughput screening for SCD activity
- May lead to improved understanding of the physiological role of SCD and its isoforms in vivo
- In addition to SCD, other eukaryotic or prokaryotic desaturases may be expressed using this system.
- Oxidoreductases other than cytochrome b5 or cytochrome b5 reductases may be used.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For More Information About the Inventors
Intellectual Property Status
Tech Fields
Drug Discovery - Disease models
Research Tools - Gene expression
CONTACT INFORMATION
For current licensing status, please contact our team at
licensing@warf.org
or phone 608.262.4924. (Clicking this link will open a contact form in a popup window. If you have problems viewing the form, try disabling your popup blocker software.)
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