BioMAP® Profiling Provides Insights into Toxicity of Nanomaterials, Failed Drugs and Environmental Chemicals
March 12 2012 - 11:00AM
Business Wire
Assessments of the biological activity of various nanomaterials
and chemicals in the context of primary human cell biology were
presented today at the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology
by scientists from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and
BioSeek, LLC. The presented findings further demonstrate the value
of BioMAP® human primary cell assay systems for both identifying
critical bioactivities and potentially adverse effects of drugs,
new materials and other compounds in a high-throughput format.
“Through our work with EPA, BioMAP is yielding a rich harvest of
biological information on a wide variety of environmental and other
chemicals and their potential effects on human health,” said Ellen
Berg, Ph.D., General Manager of BioSeek. “In addition to helping
meet the goals of the ToxCast Program, which are aimed at
developing high-throughput screening methods capable of predicting
chemical toxicities, this information is continuing to enrich our
BioMAP database. We view that resource as an increasingly valuable
tool that can be mined to better understand the activities and
potential safety of our pharmaceutical partners’ compounds in the
context of human biology, prior to undertaking costly human
clinical trials.”
In an oral presentation by EPA, various nanomaterials with
varying cores and their ion and micro counterparts were tested for
cytotoxicity in various cell types, for transcription factor
activation in HepG2cells, and for protein bioactive profiling in
eight BioMAP human primary cell systems at concentrations
equivalent to human exposures of 24 hours to 45 years. Analysis
showed that nanomaterial cores are critical to bioactivities and
their effects are often similar to those of related ions. Comparing
test results on nanomaterials to reference profiles of other
compounds in the BioMAP database suggested further molecular
targets and pathways affected by the tested nanomaterials that
weren’t directly measured by the assays performed.
A poster presented by EPA and BioSeek collaborators discussed
the biological profiling of the ToxCast Phase II Chemical Library
in BioSeek’s primary human cell co-culture systems. The Phase II
library contains 1060 unique compounds including failed
pharmaceuticals donated by industry partners, reference compounds
known to be endocrine disrupters, carcinogens or
reproductive/developmental toxicants, and other widely used
chemicals, food and cosmetic additives, and proposed alternatives
to current industrially used chemicals The chemicals were tested in
a panel of BioMAP co-culture systems and classified based on their
ability to cause overt cytotoxicity in various cells types and on
their bioactivity profiles when compared to reference
compounds.
About BioMAP
BioSeek’s proprietary BioMAP technology platform bridges the gap
between in vitro and in vivo testing to connect primary human
cell-based assay data to clinically relevant results. Compounds
tested in BioMAP Assay Systems generate biological activity
profiles that are compared to those of thousands of
well-characterized agents in our proprietary BioMAP database, using
a variety of predictive computational analyses. BioMAP Assay
Systems are physiologically relevant and concurrently provide
multifactorial readouts relevant to compound efficacy and safety.
Thus, a compound’s detected activities effectively preview in vivo
results and forecast potential clinical outcomes. The BioMAP
technology platform is consistently reproducible within and between
assays, is high throughput, and supports drug discovery programs
from library screening to lead optimization and candidate
selection. For more information on BioMAP, please visit our website
at www.bioseekinc.com.
About the US EPA ToxCastTM Program
The U.S. EPA ToxCastTM Program is developing approaches to
predict chemical toxicity using data from high-throughput and high
content in vitro assays. The goal of ToxCastTM is to develop and
verify "toxicity signatures," which are algorithms using in vitro
and in silico data to predict in vivo toxicities. Phase I of
ToxCastTM has produced data from >300 chemicals, ~500 in vitro
assays and ~100 in vivo endpoints, providing a powerful dataset for
evaluating the applicability of various analytic approaches for
predicting the potential for an adverse response. The initial
results from Phase I of the ToxCastTM program were presented on May
14-15, 2009 at the First ToxCastTM Data Analysis Summit held in
Research Triangle Park, NC. Phase II of the ToxCastTM program will
expand on and verify the ability of this approach to predict
potential human toxicity. In Phase III, ToxCastTM will expand the
list to thousands of environmental chemicals, delivering an
affordable, science-based system for decision-makers to prioritize
chemicals for more detailed toxicological evaluations.
About BioSeek
BioSeek, LLC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Asterand plc (LSE:
ATD), a leading supplier of high quality human tissue and
tissue-based services. BioSeek improves the success rate of
pharmaceutical research and development by integrating human
biology from the earliest stages of drug discovery onward through
its unique BioMAP® predictive human-based models. Our mission is to
accelerate target discovery and drug compound validation and enable
our clients to take safer and more effective drugs into the
market.
For more information about Asterand and BioSeek, please visit
http://www.asterand.com.
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