| abstract |
The present invention discloses an isolated and purified nucleic acid sequence and corresponding amino acid sequence to a novel protein specific for human lung cancer cells. This gene is expressed at a much higher level in these cells than in normal lung, other normal tissues and other tumor cell lines tested. Also disclosed are two additional recombinant forms of this gene and protein, in the first case a membrane spanning region is removed and in the second case an amino acid is changed by in vitro mutagenesis. Also disclosed are nucleic acid probes for the detection of lung cancer cells from tissue biopsy and body fluids such as serum, sputum and bronchial washings. A method for expressing the antigen in a host cell and its subsequent use as an immunogen in antibody production for test applications is described. An ELISA test to measure shed antigen present in patient samples as well as an enzyme test to measure activity in specimens also is described. |