To provide a more thorough and predictive cardiac safety profile of new chemical entities, the FDA is introducing the Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) initiative. To allow the successful integration of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CM) as a translational model of human cardiac tissue their physiology needs to be fully characterised.
Here we highlight the work performed at Metrion Biosciences in collaboration with Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) to assess the utility of CDI iCell2 ventricular iPSC-CM for cardiotoxicity screening.
The presence of sensory neuron markers, excitability properties consistent with sensory neurons, and evidence of nociceptor ion channels (using both RNASeq and electrophysiology) provides strong evidence that iCell Sensory Neurons have a robust sensory neuron phenotype suitable for supporting pain discovery programs.
Using automated patch clamp technology, we evaluate the potency and selectivity of ten Nav1.7-selective arachnid peptide toxins, which have been fused to the C-terminus (Fc region) of human IgG1.