The present invention relates, in part, to methods of preventing and/or treating a subject afflicted with bone loss conditions comprising administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of an agent that decreases the amount and/or activity of irisin.

Methods and assays for detecting natalizumab in a sample, natalizumab-peptide complexes in a sample, and point-of-care devices for detecting natalizumab in a sample are described herein.

Methods treating an aberrant activation of v3 integrin are provided. The methods include administering a therapeutically effective amount of inducible co-stimulator ligand (ICOSL) polypeptide to a subject in need thereof. Methods of identifying subjects having a kidney injury are also provided.

The invention relates to methods and products for the identification of a clinically significant immune response in subjects treated with a therapeutic protein. Aspects of the invention relate to methods and compositions for identifying a clinically significant immune response in patients treated with therapeutic amounts of a VLA4 binding antibody (e.g., natalizumab).

The invention relates to the field of biology and medicine, specifically to oncology, and can be used for diagnosing prostate cancer. For this purpose, use is made of a novel prostate cancer marker, which can be identified in the urine of a patient and constitutes of integrin-alpha V level or a fragment thereof. A method of diagnosing prostate cancer, comprising identifying integrin-alpha V in the urine of a patient, and a kit for carrying out the diagnosis, comprising at least one antibody specific to integrin-alpha V, or a functional fragment thereof, are also proposed. The invention makes it possible to carry out a non-invasive diagnosis of prostate cancer using a simple, sensitive and reliable method, which can be used under standard clinical laboratory conditions in inpatient or outpatient medical institutions.

The present invention relates to methods that are based on expression of integrin alpha10 and integrin alpha11 on chondrocytes, used for determining purity, quality, degree of chondrocytic identity, chondrocytic potency, and/or degree of chondrocytic phenotype of a composition comprising chondrocytes, as well as for isolating and enriching a population of high quality chondrocytes and controlling culturing and expanding of high quality chondrocytes. The present invention relates also to composition comprising chondrocytes.

IgG epitope and applications thereof as a target are provided. The IgG epitope is the C.sub.H1 domain of non-B cell-derived IgG, and there is N-glycosylated sialic acid modification at the Asn162 site of the domain. The realization of its antigen functions must depend on the sialylation of the site. The present invention further discloses the applications of the IgG epitope as a drug target in preparing drugs for diagnosis and/or treatment of epithelial tumors. In addition, our studies showed that this antigen depends on the sialylation of Asn162 site as a drug target, and the sialylation of this site must depend on sialyltransferase ST3GAL4, indicating that the enzyme can be used as a drug target for preparing tumor therapeutic drugs. Further, integrin 4 is co-expressed and co-localized with IgG containing the epitope. IgG can be used as a marker for preparing drugs for the auxiliary detection of epithelial tumors.

The present invention relates to methods that are based on expression of integrin alpha10 and integrin alpha11 on chondrocytes, used for determining purity, quality, degree of chondrocytic identity, chondrocytic potency, and/or degree of chondrocytic phenotype of a composition comprising chondrocytes, as well as for isolating and enriching a population of high quality chondrocytes and controlling culturing and expanding of high quality chondrocytes. The present invention relates also to composition comprising chondrocytes.

The present invention relates to biomarkers for use in determining the sensitivity of patients to therapy with v6 integrin inhibition or therapy with TGF- pathway inhibitors. The biomarker profiles disclosed herein provide individualized gene and protein profiles which will aid in treating diseases and disorders which are amenable to treatment with therapies designed against v6-integrin and/or TGF- pathway inhibitors.

The invention relates to methods and products for the identification of a clinically significant immune response in subjects treated with a therapeutic protein. Aspects of the invention relate to methods and compositions for identifying a clinically significant immune response in patients treated with therapeutic amounts of a VLA4 binding antibody (e.g., natalizumab).