Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 2-38 have been cancelled. Claim 1 is pending and is under examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sommer et al. US 2018/0273940 9/27/2018.
Sommer et al disclose a method of killing a Clostridium difficile target cell, the cell comprising at least one Resistance- Nodulation-Cell Division (RND)-efflux pump (the instant specification at p. 22 lines 24-27 teaches that an example target cell is Clostridium difficile), the method comprising contacting the Clostridium difficile target cell with a E. coli carrier bacterial cell, wherein the carrier cell comprises a conjugative plasmid, the plasmid CRISPR guided vector (CGV) containing an antibacterial agent i.e. gRNA-encoding CRISPR array that is toxic to the target cell, wherein the CGV harnesses the endogenous Cas3 machinery of the Clostridium difficile target cell, wherein the E. coli carrier cell conjugates to the target cell and the CRISPR guided vector (CGV) is transferred into the C. difficile target cell, wherein the agent gRNA-encoding CRISPR is expressed (transcribed) in the target cell and the target cell is killed. See paragraphs 882-886 example 4: In Vitro CRISPR Killing of Clostridium difficile by Conjugative Plasmid Vectors and Cas3.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lu et al. US 2015/0064138 3/5/15.
Lu et al disclose a method of killing a bacterial target cell (see paragraph 143, 168), the cell comprising at least one Resistance-Nodulation-Cell Division (RND)-efflux pump which e.g. targets of interest in P. aeruginosa include efflux pump mutations, which are chromosomal mutations in genes such as mexR and mexS that confer multi-drug resistance, porin loss mutations, which are chromosomal mutations in genes such as oprD that confer resistance to imipenem resistance (paragraph 195), the method comprising contacting the target cell with a carrier bacterial cell, wherein the probiotic cell comprises a conjugative plasmid, the plasmid encoding an antibacterial agent comprising a programmable nuclease circuit that is toxic to the target cell e.g. by selectively removing bacteria with specific genomic contents such as, for example antibiotic resistance and/or virulence and/or metabolic pathways), wherein the carrier cell conjugates to the target cell and
the plasmid is transferred into the target cell, wherein the agent is expressed in the target cell and the target cell is killed. (See paragraphs 24, 86, 95, 100, 143, 168, 186, 187, 203-205 and 211).
The instant specification at p. 2 disclose oprD and that efflux pumps belonging to the resistance-nodulation-division (RND) family of transporters are the major multi-drug efflux (Mex) mechanism in both E. coli and P. aeruginosa. Thus, mexR and mexS disclosed by Lu et al (see above) belong to resistance-nodulation-division (RND) family of transporters/efflux pumps.
Status of Claims
Claim 1 is rejected.
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/OLUWATOSIN A OGUNBIYI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1645
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