Appeal No. 2001-1651 Page 8
Application No. 09/238,972
Answer, page 5. We note that the examiner does not limit the scope of this
method to exclude antisense oligonucleotide therapy. The only reasonable
conclusion that can be drawn from the examiner’s argument is that despite the
teachings of Hoke, Gewirtz, and Branch an antisense oligo consisting of SEQ ID
NO:2 can be used in an antisense oligonucleotide therapy method for inhibiting
CAT2 expression. Thus, the generic teachings of Hoke, Gewirtz and Branch are
not applicable to appellant’s claimed methods.
According to appellant’s specification (page 27), “[t]he present invention
describes how novel antisense oligonucleotides can be employed to prevent
cationic amino acid transport, which in turn blocks production of nitric oxide in
cells such as activated macrophages or cancer cells.” Appellant’s specification
discloses (page 28), “the present invention makes available novel antisense
oligonucleotides for use in gene therapy where it may be desirable to inhibit
production of nitric oxide.” In the paragraph bridging pages 28-29, appellant’s
specification discloses that
this method will treat diseases selected from the group consisting
of sepsis, cachexia, neoplastic diseases such as Kaposi’s
sarcoma, cerebral malaria, capillary leak syndrome and
autoimmune disease. Representative autoimmune diseases
include systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and
multiple sclerosis. Representative neoplastic diseases include
breast and lung cancer.
The examiner recognizes (Answer, page 6), appellant’s “specification
teaches that CAT2 is involved in arginine transport which was shown to be
essential in nitric oxide synthesis. In addition, iNOS expression was shown to be
correlative with mammary tumorigenesis since mice with a functional iNOS gene
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