Patenting transcription factors for drug discovery and therapeutics

Abstract

Nuclear transcription factors regulate tissue- and stimulus-specific gene expression through their ability to integrate extracellular signals at the level of the nucleus. Multiple human diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurologic and auto-immune disorders, result from aberrations in the expression of genes regulated by these transcription factors. Interest in the exploitation of transcription factors for the development of gene-regulating therapeutics has grown steadily over the past few years. An increasing number of patents have been issued in which different transcription factors and gene regulation technologies have been claimed for drug discovery and therapeutics. Transcription factors and gene expression technologies are likely to represent a major focus in future patent applications