Appeal No. 1997-0798
Application 08/128,020
The examiner’s position is summarized in the paragraph bridging pages 4-5 of
the Examiner’s Answer as follows:
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to select one
of the troponins as a marker for diagnosis of myocardial infarction, since
Cummins et al. specifically teach that any of the contractile proteins of the
myofibril could meet the requirements for a suitable cardiodiagnostic
marker, and that the troponin complex proteins in particular would be
desirable since they are single polypeptides and display a relatively simple
tissue isotype distribution when compared to either myosin or tropomyosin
isotypes. One of ordinary skill in the art would not have utilized troponin-
C, since Gahlmann et al. specifically teaches that the cardiac form of
troponin-C is also expressed in skeletal muscle and in certain fibroblasts.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have expected success in raising
antibodies to troponin-T, since Lim et al. were successful in raising a
monoclonal antibody which was specific for troponin-T. Although the
antibody of Lim et al. did crossreact with both the skeletal and cardiac
forms, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected success in
producing a cardiac specific antibody, since Sevier et al. specifically
teaches that “unwanted” reactivity may be eliminated from consideration in
the production of monoclonal antibodies by merely selecting against
antibodies responsible for such cross reacti vity during the screening
phase and Leszyk et al. specifically teach that cardiac troponin-T has an
extended amino terminus that is rich in glutamic acid, so that cardiac
troponin-Ts are acidic, while skeletal TnTs are basic.
Viewing the references relied upon by the examiner apart from appellants’
disclosure of the present invention, as we must, we do not find that the references
would have reasonably suggested the claimed subject matter. For example, no
reference directly suggests the use of troponin T as a marker for myocardial necroses.
Even if one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to use troponin T as a
marker for myocardial necroses, the references at best suggest that antibodies might be
developed which could distinguish between cardiac muscle troponin T and human
skeletal muscle troponin T. The fact that the two proteins have different amino acid
sequences only creates the possibility that antibodies could be formed which would
6
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007