Cellular Dynamics (CDI) has partnered with ACEA Biosciences to bring the early and accurate prediction of potential cardiotoxic side effects to the drug discovery process using an Xcelligence system.
The partnership combines CDI's induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC)-derived heart cells, Icell cardiomyocytes, with the Xcelligence RTCA System.
The Xcelligence System is developed by ACEA and Roche Applied Science and marketed by Roche.
CDI has supplied purified human Icell Cardiomyocytes to ACEA for the evaluation experiments, in which the Xcelligence RTCA Cardio System was used to measure the effects of cardiac compounds with known electrophysiological and/or biochemical actions on the cells as well as drugs withdrawn from the market due to cardiac liability.
The evaluation has been successfully completed and the platform is in external beta testing at several pharmaceutical and academic institutions and will be made commercially available soon.
'Our Icell Cardiomyocytes provide a biochemically and electrophysiologically relevant human model for discovery and testing, compared to current non-human, cadaveric, or immortalised cells lines,' said Chris Parker, CDI chief commercial officer.
'Our industrialised manufacturing process enables us to supply homogeneous cells in the quantity, quality and purity required to assess potential cardiac effects caused by drugs under development,' added Parker.
'The Xcelligence RTCA Cardio System adds a new product line to our non-invasive cell-based assays providing physiological relevant data,' said Ruedi Stoffel, life cycle leader cellular analysis at Roche Applied Science.
'It allows our customers to study drug effects on the ultimate physiological function of cardiomyocytes - heart beating,' added Stoffel.
Icell Cardiomyocytes, launched in December 2009, are developed from human IPS cells and are gaining wide acceptance in industrial and academic research programmes.
Icell Cardiomyocytes beat spontaneously in vitro and exhibit the electrophysiological and biochemical properties of normal human heart cells.
By providing a relevant human model, this cellular tool is designed to aid basic research and drug discovery by enabling more precise drug targeting and greater compound efficacy as well as increased predictability of toxicity screens.
As Icell Cardiomyocytes are an in-vitro-based test system, they can be utilised early in the development pipeline to weed out ineffective and potentially toxic compounds prior to significant time and resource investment.
The Xcelligence RTCA system encompasses a series of instruments that utilises specially fabricated microtiter plates containing microelectrodes for real-time dynamic monitoring of cell behaviour under label-free conditions.
A number of cell-based applications, including cell proliferation and cytotoxicity, cell adhesion, cell migration and invasion and receptor-mediated signalling, have been developed on the Xcelligence platform.
The Xcelligence RTCA Cardio System represents the latest addition to the portfolio, which provides a label-free, fast analysis system for monitoring basic cell health and cardiomyocyte function.
By rapidly measuring impedance at quick sampling rates, the RTCA system is able to simultaneously assess cell health and physiological activity in real time, thus determining a compound's potential effect on cardiomyocyte viability, beat rate and contractile behaviour in a single hands-free assay.
The platform's utility extends beyond cardiotoxicity measurements by providing an assay system that is suitable for use in drug discovery efforts targeting cardiac ion channels, G-protein coupled receptors and contractile elements.
