Morgan G Jenkins

US Patent:

20030228586, Dec 11, 2003

Filed:

Jan 13, 2003

Appl. No.:

10/341015

Inventors:

Rafick-Pierre Sekaly - St. Laurent, CA
Jean-Francois Poulin - Montreal, CA
Morgan Jenkins - San Francisco CA, US
Jeffrey Harris - San Francisco CA, US
Krishna Komanduri - San Francisco CA, US
Joseph McCune - San Francisco CA, US

International Classification:

C12Q001/68
C12P019/34

US Classification:

435/006000, 435/091200

Abstract:

The present invention relates to a method for measuring de novo T-cell production in humans, and more particularly to the assessement recent thymic emigrant (RTE) diversity in a T-cell sub-population of a patient by the detection of T-cell receptor chain DNA deletion circles (TCRDC) generated during TCR gene rearrangement of thymocytes in the thymus. The method comprises isolating a T-cell sub-population from a patient, extracting genomic DNA from the T-cell sub-population, amplifying the genomic DNA with a primer specific for a T-cell receptor chain DNA rearrangement deletion circle (TCRDC) family and detecting the TCRDC, the TRCDC being indicative of the presence of a RTE. The method assesses the quantitative and qualitative (diversity) intrathymic T-cell production by quantitating the relative frequency and diversity of RTEs within various sub-populations of circulating human T-cells. Such a method may be useful to study the diversity of the human thymic function and to monitor immune reconstitution of HIV patients.