Current cardiac safety testing regimes have successfully prevented new drugs coming to market with unknown proarrhythmic risk. However, they are expensive and time-consuming, and an over-reliance on hERG liability as a marker for proarrhythmia has led to exclusion of useful chemical scaffolds from further drug development. In addition, the focus on hERG ignores the risk posed by potential drug interactions with multiple cardiac ion channels (MICE) that can alter cardiac action potentials.
We developed a high-throughput, electrophysiological assay of TREK-1 function to identify novel modulators. The assay was optimized to identify both activators and inhibitors, providing comprehensive mechanistic data for high value, limited supply screening libraries, such as the venom fraction library used in this study (Targeted Venom Discovery Array, T-VDA, Venomtech, UK).
Scientifica’s PatchScope Pro is an integrated electrophysiology rig incorporating an inverted phase-contrast fluorescence microscope, motorised XY stage and PatchStar micromanipulators, suitable for patch-clamp recording.