IMPROVED DETECTION OF MAGE-A EXPRESSION

摘要

Disclosed is a primer or probe for the detection of the methylation status of the MAGE-A3 gene consisting essentially of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3. Also disclosed is primer pair comprising said primer and a primer selected from the primers consisting essentially of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:5 and SEQ ID NO:6. Further disclosed is a method of detecting the presence and/or amount of unmethylated Mage-A3 gene in a DNA-containing sample, comprising: (a) contacting/treating the DNA-containing sample with a reagent which selectively modifies unmethylated cytosine residues in the DNA to produce detectable modified residues but which does not modify methylated cytosine residues (b)amplifying the DNA in said sample using at least one primer pair, at least one primer of which is designed to bind only to the sequence of unmethylated DNA following treatment with the reagent, wherein at least one primer in the primer pair consists essentially of SEQ ID NO: 3 and (c) detecting the presence and/or amount of the amplified DNA.