Ion Channel Screening

Ion channels are integral membrane proteins that catalyze the flux of ions across cell membranes, and play fundamental roles in a wide variety of functions include maintaining a resting membrane potential, conducting action potentials and other electrical signals. The malfunction of ion channels causes a variety of human diseases.

Therefore, ion channels represent a class of attractive drug targets and a class of important off-targets for in vitro pharmacological profiling. In addition, ion channels are also critically important in evaluating drug safety. Many drugs withdrawn from the market due to cardiac-related adverse effects have been shown to block the human ether-a-go-go (hERG) ion channel, which delays repolarization of the cardiac action potential.

Screening Process

Patch clamp electrophysiology is the gold standard for ion channel studies. High-throughput identification of compound ion channel efficacy, potency, specificity, or potential for off-target effects is a critical step in early drug discovery. MedChemExpress offers high-throughput fluorescence-based assays, automated patch clamp electrophysiology assays as well as manual patch assays to identify the most promising candidates.

Advantages

The broad range of platforms for different throughputs: including Qpatch 16X, Qpatch HTX, IonWorks Barracuda, FDSS/μCell, and conventional manual patch clamp electrophysiology

A long list of ion channel assay models: chloride channel, potassium channel, sodium channel, calcium channel models with efficient signal read-out and good stability

Manual patch clamp: Gold standard for detailed characterization

One-stop shopping: 6,000,000+ available, lead-like compounds

Other custom ion channel cell line generation