Use of PAK inhibitor for the treatment of a joint disease

1. A method of screening a PAK1 inhibitor for the treatment of a degenerative joint disease comprising:

(a) providing a whole cell comprising a p21-activated kinase (PAK) PAK1 comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or the PAK1 gene comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1,

(b) providing a test compound,

(c) contacting said whole cell comprising PAK1 or PAK1 gene with said test compound, and measuring or detecting the influence of said test compound on PAK1 or the PAK1 gene as compared to a control reaction lacking said test compound wherein said measuring or detecting comprises determining the extent that said test compound affects the interaction between said PAK1 or PAK1 gene and Cdc42, Rac1, Wrch-1, Chp or activated p21, or determining the extent that said test compound affects phosphorylation of a substrate thereby identifying an inhibitor for the treatment of a degenerative joint disease.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the test compound is provided in the form of a chemical compound library.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the influence of the test compound on said PAK1 or the polynucleotide encoding the same PAK1 is measured or detected in a heterogeneous or homogeneous assay.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the heterogeneous assay is selected from the group consisting of: an ELISA (enzyme linked immuno sorbent assay), a DELFIA (dissociation enhanced lanthanide fluoro immuno assay), an SPA (scintillation proximity assay) and a flashplate assay.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the homogeneous assay is a TR-FRET (time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer) assay, a FP (fluorescence polarisation) assay, an ALPHA (amplified luminescent proximity homogenous assay), an EFC (enzyme fragment complementation) assay or a gene assay.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method is carried out on an array.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method is carried out in a robotics system.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method is carried out using microfluidics.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method is a method of high-through put screening and the interaction is inhibition.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said test compound is co-expressed with a GTPase selected from the group consisting of Rac1, Wrch-1, Chp and constitutively-active Cdc42.