The invention provides a method of diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The method utilizes presenilin-1, whose level is found to be substantially decreased in Alzheimer's patients. Included in the invention are diagnostic kits for Alzheimer's disease and methods of screening for effective therapeutics for the disease. The invention also provides a method of studying the function and regulation of presenilin-1 in brain by the use of primate retinoblastoma cells.

Disclosed is substantially pure DNA encoding mammalian IAP polypeptides; substantially pure polypeptides; and methods of using such DNA to express the IAP polypeptides in cells and animals to inhibit apoptosis. Also disclosed are conserved regions characteristic of the IAP family and primers and probes for the identification and isolation of additional IAP genes. In addition, methods for treating diseases and disorders involving apoptosis are provided.

The present invention relates to a method for the identification of human subjects to be responsive to cholinomimetic therapy comprising determining the absence of apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4) alleles in a biological sample of the patient where the absence of at least one apoE4 allele indicates a predisposition to respond to cholinomimetic therapy and methods of administering cholinomimetics to such identified subjects.

Compositions and methods for treating transplant rejection in a mammalian transplant recipient are provided. The method involves administering a therapeutically effective amount of Serp-1, its analogs, and biologically active fragments thereof in combination with an anti-rejection agent, such as cyclosporin, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier to a subject in need of such treatment. The compositions and methods are useful for treating acute and chronic allograft and xenograft transplant re...

The present inventions features methods for treating or preventing cancer (e.g., cancer of the central nervous system) by administering a compound that inhibits PAK kinase activity and/or merlin phosphorylation to a mammal (e.g., a human). The invention also provides screening methods for identifying additional inhibitors of PAK kinase activity and/or merlin phosphorylation.

The present invention disclosed compositions comprising a stabilized Exendin-4 (1-39) and related compounds. The invention describes stabilized Exendin-4 agonists that include at least one modified amino acid residue particularly at positions Gln 13, Met14, Trp25, or Asn28 of the Exendin-4 (1-39) molecule. Disclosed are preferred modifications of deaminated, hydrolyzed, oxidized, or isomerized reaction products of the specified amino acid residues corresponding to the same positions in the Exend...

Disclosed are a variety of peptide conjugates represented by the following general formula: R.sub.1-Z-X-Z'-R.sub.2 including methods of making and using such conjugates. Also provided are antibodies that specifically bind the peptide conjugates. The present invention has a wide spectrum of important applications including use in the treatment of disorders impacted by nociceptin and related opioid-like peptides.

The present invention relates to methods of affecting cellular communication in a vertebrate. The communication is affected by the administration of a neuregulin to a vertebrate, where the neuregulin interacts with a first cell type which results in the production of a product (i.e., Product A). This product, in turn, affects the function of a second cell type. Methods are disclosed in which the affect in function of the second cell type, described above, results in the production of a second pr...

Disclosed are diagnostic and prognostic kits for the detection and treatment of proliferative diseases such as ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and lymphoma. Also disclosed are cancer therapeutics utilizing IAP antisense nucleic acids IAP fragments, and antibodies which specifically bind IAP polypeptides.

The present invention provides a method for the determining the appropriate therapy and/or prognosis for a patient diagnosed with a non-Alzheimer's disease (AD) neurological disease based upon the patient's apoE allele load. The invention also provides a method for the identification of human subjects with a non-AD neurological disease that are likely to respond in clinical trials that test pharmaceuticals useful in the treatment of neurological diseases.