Comparative Analysis of Multiple Immunoassays for Cytokine Profiling in Drug Discovery.

Cytokines and their receptors play critical roles in biological processes. Dysfunction or dysregulation of cytokines may cause a variety of pathophysiological conditions. Consequently, cytokine profiling and related technologies are essential for biological studies, disease diagnosis, and drug discovery.

Activation of the Amino Acid Response Pathway Blunts the Effects of Cardiac Stress.

Background: The amino acid response (AAR) is an evolutionarily conserved protective mechanism activated by amino acid deficiency through a key kinase, general control nonderepressible 2. In addition to mobilizing amino acids, the AAR broadly affects gene and protein expression in a variety of pathways and elicits antifibrotic, autophagic, and anti-inflammatory activities. However, little is known regarding its role in cardiac stress.

Cell-Based Selection Expands the Utility of DNA-Encoded Small-Molecule Library Technology to Cell Surface Drug Targets: Identification of Novel Antagonists of the NK3 Tachykinin Receptor.

DNA-encoded small-molecule library technology has recently emerged as a new paradigm for identifying ligands against drug targets. To date, this technology has been used with soluble protein targets that are produced and used in a purified state. Here, we describe a cell-based method for identifying small-molecule ligands from DNA-encoded libraries against integral membrane protein targets.

A novel approach applying a chemical biology strategy in phenotypic screening reveals pathway-selective regulators of histone 3 K27 tri-methylation.

Epigenetic regulation by histone methylation is crucial for proper programming of the genome during development. Homeostasis of histone methylation is balanced by the activities of histone methyltransferases and demethylases. Although these methyltransferases and demethylases represent logical targets for potential drug discovery, the activities of methyltransferases and demethylases regulated in response to a complex biological stimulus are also important and not yet clear.

Application of division arrest technology to cell-based HTS: comparison with frozen and fresh cells.

Cell-based functional assays are becoming popular in many HTS laboratories because of recent advances in detection and automation technologies. However, the supply of large amounts of live cells with consistent cellular response for day-to-day screening operations over several days/weeks is a tremendous challenge. The high cost of cell culture, labor-intensive nature of the work, and inherent variability in cellular responses from time to time tend to be prohibitive for extensive applications of cell-based assays in HTS.

Improving consistency of cell-based assays by using division-arrested cells.

In this article we describe the use of division-arrested cells for cell-based assays designed for high-throughput screening. Cells are the most critical and variable reagent for cell-based high-throughput screening. The robustness of robotic screening depends on the quality and consistency of cell reagents.