Inventors:
Laurie H. Glimcher - West Newton MA, US
Dallas C. Jones - Brookline MA, US
Antonios O. Aliprantis - Allston MA, US
Assignee:
PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE - Cambridge MA
International Classification:
A61K 49/00, C40B 30/00, C40B 30/06
Abstract:
The present invention is based, at least in part, on the identification of molecules involved in the differentiation and/or activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Accordingly, the present invention provides methods of identifying modulators of bone formation, mineralization, and/or osteoclastogenesis and methods for treating disorders that would benefit from modulation of bone formation, mineralization, and/or osteoclastogenesis using agents identified as described herein. The target biomolecules of these methods are, for example, the osteoblast regulators TA0K2 or DLG1 or P1N1 or LYK5 or M0BKL2C or MAP4K2 or PACSIN2 or DCAMKLI or D0CK4 or PARO1 or TA0K3 or TRPV6 or CLK1 or AAK1 or PRKCA or AKAP8 or DGKJ or SMARCB1 or CIB2 or STIK33 or STK 39 or NRGN or PIK3R1 or RASSF5 or FRAPI or STK3S or LATSI or LATS2 or STK38L or GEFT or TNNI3K or STK4 or RAF1 or ARFI or CI7orf1 or SMURF2. The assays may involve mesenchymal cells. Also screening assays using osteoclast regulators such as GCK or WASH or PPP2CB or PPP2R1A or CREBBP or CUL3 or FBXW1 or MELK or PLCLI or MAP3K3 or DLGH1 or NEK7 or JIRAK3 or RHOC or SLC4A2 or PLCB4 or B-RAF or BMPR2 or MAPK3 or NHEDC2 are proposed, e.g. using hemapoietic stem cell assays.