Method for determining the neurodevelopmental toxicity of a compound in vitro

Abstract

This invention is in the field of medical molecular diagnostics. It provides methods and means for the in vitro detection of the neurodevelopmental toxicity of a compound by determining the gene expression of a limited number of genes. More in particular, it relates to a method for determining the likelihood that a compound is neurodevelopmental toxic, comprising the steps of: providing embryonic stem cells, allowing the stem cells to form embryoid bodies, allowing the embryoid bodies to differentiate into neural cells, in the presence of said compound, thereby creating a neural differentiation culture, extracting total RNA from the cells in said neural differentiation culture, determining the expression levels of genes Hoxb6, Nrk, 1700011H14Rik and Tph1, comparing the expression levels with a predetermined reference value and determining the increase or decrease of the expression level relative to the reference value, wherein a relative increase or decrease in expression value of more than 20% indicates that a compound is neurodevelopmental toxic.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.