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US 2006/0216689 A1Published application
Ion channel assay methods
AssigneeVertex Pharmaceuticals (San Diego) LLC
InventorsMichael Maher, Jesus Gonzalez
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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.
Claims11
A method of assaying a compound for voltage-dependent blocking activity against a target ion channel comprising:
- a. selecting a cell line having a normal resting transmembrane potential corresponding to a selected voltage dependent state of said target ion channel;
- b. expressing said target ion channel in a population of cells of said selected cell line;
- c. exposing said population of cells to said compound;
- d. repetitively applying biphasic electric field pulses to said population of cells, 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 so as to effect a controlled change in the transmembrane potential of said population of cells;
- and
- e. monitoring changes in the transmembrane potential of said population of cells.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.