Drug Screening Assay for Novel Chemotherapeutic Agents

The nuclear matrix protein NuMA ( Nuclear Mitotic Apparatus) is present at greater than tenfold higmalignant tissues relative to normal tissues. Scientists at Matritech have shown that interference wantisense oligonucleotide technology dramatically slows the growth of cancer cells both in soft agarWe believe that the combination of its overexpression in cancerous tissue and its essential role formake NuMA a very good anti- cancer therapeutic target. NuMA has a structure similar to that of the iproteins such as cytokeratins and lamins. This motif indicates that it may be capable of both self abinding other nuclear proteins. We propose to use the two hybrid cloning system to set up a high thrassay to discover small organic compounds which inhibit the self association of NuMA. We also intendbiochemical assay measuring recombinant human NuMA self association which will be used to verify onlevel that the compounds discovered in the two hybrid assay are antagonists of this process.