Claims for Patent: 7,494,805

Summary for Patent: 7,494,805

Title:	Expression cassette and vector for transient or stable expression of exogenous molecules
Abstract:	The disclosure provides an expression cassette and a vector comprising the cassette for expression of a polynucleotide. The expression cassette includes a promoter/enhancer, an intervening region, and a polyadenylation signal domain. Expression systems and methods of using the expression cassette and vector are also provided.
Inventor(s):	Sisk; William P. (Boxborough, MA), Prentice; Holly (Carlisle, MA)
Assignee:	Biogen Idec MA Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
Application Number:	10/545,420
Patent Claims:	1. An expression cassette comprising: (i) a human CMV immediate early 1 (hCMV IE1) promoter/enhancer region; (ii) a polynucleotide of interest; (iii) a variant human growth hormone (hGHv) polyA signal domain; and (iv) a variable length intervening seciuence (VLIVS) comprising a splice donor and splice acceptor site; wherein the hGHv polyA signal domain is at least 100 nucleotides in length, contains the sequence AATAAA, and is a variant of a wild-type human growth hormone polyA signal domain that is at least 92% identical to said wild-type human growth hormone polyA signal domain; and wherein the VLIVS comprises an intron A of a hCMV IE1 gene. 2. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the expression cassette comprises a sequence as set forth from about x.sub.1 to about x.sub.2 of SEQ ID NO:1, wherein x.sub.1 denotes a nucleotide from about 1 to about 20 of SEQ ID NO:1 and x.sub.2 denotes a nucleotide from about 715 to about 720 of SEQ ID NO:1. 3. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the expression cassette comprises the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:1. 4. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the expression cassette comprises a sequence at least about 80% identical to SEQ D NO:1. 5. The expression cassette of claim 4, wherein the expression cassette comprises a sequence at least about 90% identical to SEQ ID NO:1. 6. The expression cassette of claim 5, wherein the expression cassette comprises a sequence at least about 95% identical to SEQ ID NO:1. 7. The expression cassette of claim 6, wherein the expression cassette comprises a sequence at least about 97% identical to SEQ ID NO:1. 8. The expression cassette of claim 7, wherein the expression cassette comprises a sequence at least about 98% identical to SEQ ID NO:1. 9. The expression cassette of claim 8, wherein the expression cassette comprises a sequence at least about 99% identical to SEQ ID NO:1. 10. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the expression cassette comprises a nucleotide from about 1 to about 467 of SEQ ID NO:1. 11. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the VLIVS comprises an intron A of a hCMV IE1 gene that has a deletion between the splice acceptor and splice donor of the intron A. 12. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the VLIVS comprises a sequence from about x.sub.3 to x.sub.4 of SEQ ID NO:1, wherein x.sub.3 denotes a nucleotide from about 715 to about 76 of SEQ ID NO:1 and x.sub.4 denotes a nucleotide from about 1236 to about 1254 of SEQ ID NO:1. 13. The expression cassette of claim 1, further comprising an additional promoter/enhancer element or regulatory region. 14. The expression cassette of claim 13, wherein the promoter/enhancer element is an SV40 promoter/enhancer element. 15. The expression cassette of claim 13, wherein the regulatory region is an SV40 polyadenylation region. 16. The expression cassette of claim 1, further comprising a selectable marker. 17. The expression cassette of claim 16, wherein the selectable marker is selected from the group consisting of dihydrofolate reductase, GPF, neomycin, Hygro, Zeocin.TM., herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase, hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase, adenine phosphoribosyltransferase, puromycin N-acetyl transferase or adenosine deaminase. 18. The expression cassette of claim 17, wherein the selectable marker is dihydrofolate reductase. 19. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the polynucleotide of interest encodes a therapeutic agent. 20. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the polynucleotide of interest is in the antisense orientation with respect to the promoter. 21. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the polynucleotide of interest is a heterologous polynucleotide. 22. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the polynucleotide of interest further includes transcriptional control elements. 23. The expression cassette of claim 22, wherein the transcriptional control elements are selected from the group consisting of transcriptional stop signals, polyadenylation domains and downstream enhancer elements. 24. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the polynucleotide of interest encodes a polypeptide of diagnostic or therapeutic use. 25. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the polynucleotide of interest encodes an antigenic polypeptide for use as a vaccine. 26. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the polyA signal domain comprises at least 100 contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO:19. 27. The expression cassette of claim 1, wherein the polyA signal domain comprises SEQ ID NO:19. 28. The expression cassette of claim 1, in the form of a naked nucleic acid construct. 29. An expression vector comprising an expression cassette of claim 1. 30. A host cell comprising an expression vector of claim 29. 31. A host cell comprising an expression cassette of claim 1. 32. A method for producing a polypeptide comprising propagation of a host cell of claim 31 and expression of the polynucleotide of interest. 33. A method of delivering a therapeutic agent to an animal in need of treatment comprising propagation of a host cell of claim 31 and expression of the polynucleotide of interest. 34. A method of gene therapy to an animal in need of treatment comprising propagation of a host cell of claim 31 and expression of the polynucleotide of interest. 35. The genetic vector pV40. 36. The genetic vector pV60. 37. The genetic vector pV70. 38. The genetic vector pV80. 39. The genetic vector pV90. 40. The genetic vector pXLC.1. 41. The genetic vector pXLC.2. 42. The genetic vector pXHC.1. 43. The genetic vector pXHC.3. 44. The genetic vector pXHC.5.

Details for Patent 7,494,805

Applicant	Tradename	Biologic Ingredient	Dosage Form	BLA	Approval Date	Patent No.	Expiredate
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.	INTRON A	interferon alfa-2b	For Injection	103132	06/04/1986		2023-02-14
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.	INTRON A	interferon alfa-2b	For Injection	103132			2023-02-14
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.	INTRON A	interferon alfa-2b	Injection	103132			2023-02-14