Metrion Biosciences independent analysis of the spontaneous and pacing stability of vCor.4UTM and their predictive response to selective pharmacological agents.

New cardiac safety testing guidelines are being finalised, as part of the FDA’s Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) initiative, which aim to remove the over-reliance on screening against the hERG channel by expanding the panel to include hNav1.5, hCav1.2, hKv4.3/KChiP2.2, hKir2.1 and hKv7.1/KCNE1 human cardiac ion channels. In addition, the CiPA working groups have recently identified two additional in vitro assays required for in silico models to reliably predict proarrhythmia. The first is a ‘late’ sodium current assay, as inhibition of persistent inward current can affect repolarisation and mitigate proarrhythmia (e.g. ranolazine). The second assay quantifies the degree of drug trapping in the hERG channel using the Milnes voltage protocol⁽¹⁾, which can improve the prediction of proarrhythmic risk⁽²⁾.

Metrion Biosciences’ CEO Dr Andrew Southan presents an overview of Metrion Biosciences, highlighting the company’s vision, expertise and services. December 10th, 2020.

The cardiac late Na+ current (late INa) generates persistent inward currents throughout the plateau phase of the ventricular action potential and is an important determinant of repolarisation rate, EADs and arrythmia risk. As inhibition of late INa can offset drug effects on hERG and other repolarising K+ conductances it is one of the key cardiac channels in the Comprehensive in vitro Proarrythmia Assay CiPA panel being developed by the FDA to improve human clinical arrythmia risk assessment.

Marc Rogers (Metrion CSO) presents a talk at the Nanion Virtual User Meeting 2020 entitled “Designing multiple assay protocols for ligand-gated ion channels using the stacked-tip feature on the Patchliner and SP384i platforms”. 14th October 2020.

Stevens, E. B and Wright, P. D Future Drug Discovery, 2020.

The FDA’s Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) initiative is designed to remove the over-reliance on hERG data to predict human clinical cardiac risk, with recent results suggesting that inclusion of additional cardiac ion channels and assays (e.g. peak and late Nav1.5, Cav1.2, dynamic hERG) improve risk predictions of in silico action potential models.

Marc Rogers (Metrion CSO) takes part in a collaborative webinar with Nanion Technologies entitled “Validation and optimization of automated patch-clamp voltage-gated Ca2+ channel assays”.

Kramer, J.; Himmel, H. M.; Lindqvist, A.; Stoelzle-Feix, S.; Chaudhary, K. W.; Li, D.; Bohme, G. A.; Bridgland-Taylor, M.; Hebeisen, S.; Fan, J.; Renganathan, M.; Imredy, J.; Humphries, E. S. A.; Brinkwirth, N.; Strassmaier, T.; Ohtsuki, A.; Danker, T.; Vanoye, C.; Polonchuk, L.; Fermini, B.; Beck Pierson, J.; Gintant, G. Scientific Reports, 2020, 10; 5627

Bradley J. Ridder, Derek J. Leishman, Matthew Bridgland-Taylor, Mohammadreza Samieegohar, Xiaomei Han, Wendy W. Wu, Aaron Randolph, Phu Tran, Jiansong Sheng, Timm Danker, Anders Lindqvist, Daniel Konrad, Simon Hebeisen, Liudmila Polonchuk, Evgenia Gissinger, Muthukrishnan Renganathan, Bryan Koci, Haiyang Wei, Jingsong Fan, Paul Levesque, Jae Kwagh, John Imredy, Jin Zhai, Marc Rogers, Edward Humphries, Robert Kirby, Sonja Stoelzle-Feix, Nina Brinkwirth, Maria Giustina Rotordam, Nadine Becker, Søren Friis, Markus Rapedius, Tom A. Goetze, Tim Strassmaier, George Okeyo, James Kramer, Yuri Kuryshev, Caiyun Wu, Herbert Himmel, Gary R. Mirams, David G. Strauss, Rémi Bardenet, Zhihua Lia. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 394: 114961