Impact of Venom on the Production of Methaemoglobin.

Snakebite envenomation is an affliction currently estimated to be killing upwards of 100,000 people annually. Snakebite is associated with a diverse pathophysiology due to the magnitude of variation in venom composition that is observed worldwide. The haemolytic (i.

Development and automation of a 384-well cell fusion assay to identify inhibitors of CCR5/CD4-mediated HIV virus entry.

This article describes the automation of an in vitro cell-based fusion assay for the identification of novel inhibitors of receptor mediated HIV-1 entry. The assay utilises two stable cell lines: one expressing CD4, CCR5 and an LTR-promoter/beta-galactosidase reporter construct, and the other expressing gp160 and tat. Accumulation of beta-galactosidase can only occur following fusion of these two cell lines via the gp160 and receptor mediators, as this event facilitates the transfer of the tat transcription factor between the two cell types.

High-throughput screening for ion channel modulators.

Ion channels present a group of targets for major clinical indications, which have been difficult to address due to the lack of suitable rapid but biologically significant methodologies. To address the need for increased throughput in primary screening, the authors have set up a Beckman/Sagian core system to fully automate functional fluorescence-based assays that measure ion channel function. They apply voltage-sensitive fluorescent probes, and the activity of channels is monitored using Aurora's Voltage/Ion Probe Reader (VIPR).

Measuring intracellular calcium fluxes in high throughput mode.

The measurement of intracellular calcium fluxes in real time is widely applied within the pharmaceutical industry to measure the activation of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRhyp;s), either for pharmacological characterisation or to screen for new surrogate ligands. Initially restricted to G(q) coupled GPCRs, the introduction of promiscuous and chimeric G-proteins has further widened the application of these assays. The development of new calcium sensitive dyes and assays has provided sensitive, homogeneous assays which can be readily applied to high throughput screening (HTS).