Ion channel assay methods
AssigneeVertex Pharmaceuticals (San Diego) LLC
InventorsMichael Maher, Jesus Gonzalez
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of characterizing the biological activity of a candidate compound may include exposing cells to the candidate compound, and then exposing the cells to a repetitive application of electric fields so as to set the transmembrane potential to a level corresponding to a pre-selected voltage dependent state of a target ion channel.
Claims19
A method of assaying ion channel activity comprising:
- exposing at least one cell to a plurality of electric field pulses so as to create a controlled change in transmembrane potential and so as to activate an ion channel of interest;
- and
- detecting ion channel activity by detecting one or more changes in transmembrane potential without using a patch clamp.
A method of assaying ion channel activity comprising:
- expressing a selected target ion channel in at least one cell;
- expressing a selected counter ion channel in said at least one cell;
- exposing said at least one cell to a plurality of electric field pulses so as to create a controlled change in transmembrane potential and so as to activate said counter ion channel;
- and
- monitoring the transmembrane potential of said at least one cell.
A method of modifying the transmembrane potential of a cell comprising repetitively applying biphasic electric field pulses to said cell, wherein said pulses have a maximum amplitude of less than approximately 90 V/cm, wherein said pulses are applied at a rate of at least about 1 per second, and wherein the total duration of each pulse is at least about 1 millisecond.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.