SCREENING METHODS BASED ON SUPERACTIVATED alpha V beta 3 INTEGRIN

摘要

The present invention is directed to a method of identifying an inhibitor or enhancer of alpha v beta 3 activity by contacting superactivated alpha v beta 3 integrin with one or more molecules; and assaying an alpha v beta 3 integrin activity, where reduced alpha v beta 3 identifies an inhibitor of alpha v beta 3 activity and where enhanced alpha v beta 3 activity identifies an enhancer of alpha v beta 3 activity. In a preferred embodiment, a cell, such as a MCF-7 breast carcinoma cell, is transfected with a nucleic acid molecule encoding a superactivated beta 3 variant, which can have, for example, substantially the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6 shown in Figure 3.