New nucleic acid encoding the epsilon2 subunit of the gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor, for gene therapy of e.g. anxiety or Parkinson's disease

摘要

Nucleic acid (I) has at least one sequence with at least 75% identity with the gene encoding the iota 2 subunit (II) of the GABA ( psi -aminobutyric acid)A receptor. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) peptide (III) with at least one sequence at least 65% identical with (II); (2) multimeric protein (IV) consisting of (III), and subunits of the alpha , beta , psi , delta or pi families; (3) expression vectors comprising (I) fused to a promoter functional in eukaryotic or prokaryotic cells and optionally one or more selection markers; (4) vector expressing (IV); (5) cells transformed with the vector of (c), optionally also a vector expressing one or more other subunits; (6) preparation of peptides by expression in cells of (e); (7) method of screening for pharmaceuticals by testing their affinity for, or ability to affect, (III), (IV) or the cells of (e); (8) antibodies (Ab) against (III) and/or (IV); (9) (ant)agonists of (III) and/or (IV); and (10) pharmaceutical compositions containing (III), the vectors of (c) or (d), or the (ant)agonists of (j).