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This invention relates to materials and methods associated with polymorphic variants in two enzymes involved in folate-dependent and one-carbon metabolic pathways important in pregnancy-related complications and neural tube birth defects: MTHFD1 (5,10-methylenetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase, 5,10-methenyltetrahydrofolate cyclohydrolase, 10-formyltetrahydrofolate synthase) and methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (NADP+ dependent) 1-like (MTHFD1L). These enzymes are extremely important in the promotion of DNA synthesis, a process that is critical for normal placental and fetal development.

The invention described and claimed in this patent application provides for novel vectors and viral particles which comprise adeno-associated virus serotype 5 (AAV5). AAV5 is a single-stranded DNA virus of either plus or minus polarity which, like other AAV serotypes (e.g., AAV4, AAV2) requires a helper virus for replication. AAV type 2 has the interesting and potentially useful ability to integrate into human chromosome 19 q 13.3-q ter. This activity is dependent on the non-structural, Rep, proteins of AAV2.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) chronically infects over 300 million people worldwide. Many of them will die of chronic hepatitis or hepatocellular carcinoma. The present technology relates to the isolation and characterization of a novel neutralizing chimpanzee monoclonal antibody to HBV. The antibody was identified through a combinatorial antibody library constructed from bone marrow cells of a chimpanzee experimentally infected with HBV. The selected monoclonal antibody has been shown to react equally well with wild-type HBV and the most common neutralization escape mutant variants.

This application describes a composition and method for treating inflammatory bowel disease or other autoimmune diseases. The composition utilizes a vector which contains a first promoter which controls the expression of a regulatory transcription factor and a second inducible promoter which controls the expression of the gene of interest. The preferred gene of interest encodes an isoform of TGF-beta such as TGF-beta₁ or TGF-beta₃. The isoform of TGF-beta does not have to be hTGF-beta and can be a latent or active isoform of TGF-beta.

The invention provides a method of diagnosing X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (XSCID) in males or determining whether females are carriers. This method is based upon the presence of either a mutated or truncated IL-2Rgamma gene. The invention also discloses a method of treating XSCID as well as a method for monitoring the therapy.

Available for licensing are new methods of rapidly treating depression. The drugs currently used to treat depression work by increasing the activity at serotonin, norepinephrine and perhaps dopamine receptors in the CNS. However these drugs are effective in only 60-70% of patients, require 3-4 weeks of treatment before clinical improvement and have many side effects. These inventors have shown that in human patients, the administration of anti-muscarinic agents produces a rapid, prolonged alleviation of depressive symptoms.

This invention relates to a novel magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) method that accomplishes uniform contrast enhancement between coronary arteries and the surrounding tissue across the entire imaging volume. The disclosed technique utilizes an adiabatic refocusing transverse relaxation time (T₂)-preparation pulse sequence, in which the magnetization is tipped into the transverse plane with a hard radio-frequency (RF) pulse and refocused using a pair of adiabatic fast-passage RF pulses. The isochromats are subsequently returned to the longitudinal axis using a hard RF pulse.

Transformation-Associated Recombination (TAR) cloning in yeast is a unique method for selective isolation of large chromosomal fragments or entire genes from complex genomes without the time-consuming step of library construction.¹ The technique involves homologous recombination during yeast spheroplast transformation between genomic DNA and a TAR vector that has short (approximately 60bp) 5’ and 3’ gene targeting sequences (hooks).

Cytokines exert their respective biochemical and physiological effects by binding to specific receptor molecules, which then stimulate signal transduction pathways. Interleukin-21 (IL-21) is a type I cytokine whose receptor is expressed on T, B, and NK cells.

A primary goal of diabetes therapy is to improve control of blood glucose levels (known as glycemic control) in patients. Prospective studies of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes indicate that careful glycemic control significantly reduces the risk of microvascular, neurological, and cardiovascular complications of diabetes. The current method of monitoring glycemic control involves measuring levels of the intracellular hemoglobin (HbA1C).