The Kalamazoo-based
CeeTox and
Cellular Dynamics of Madison, Wisc. are now working together on a way for researchers to screen new drugs for cardiac toxicity, or their propensity to damage heart muscles and weaken the heart.
The service the companies provide is the first to use human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived cardiomyocytes. That means it uses a stem cell that can grow into any fetal or human cell, in this case those of the heart muscle, but not grow into a human being. Cardiomyocytes are highly pure, fully functional human cardiac cells.
The Cardiac Arrhythmia Assessment Screen the two companies have developed combines CeeTox's expertise with in vitro toxicity screening and the cells grown by Cellular Dynamics so that researchers can determine early in the drug development cycle whether the drug being pursued leads to cardiac toxicity.
Cardiac toxicity often leads to drugs that have been on the market being withdrawn.
Currently used animal models, non-cardiac cell lines transformed to mimic heart cells, and do not truly mimic human response and are therefore more likely to miss adverse side effects, CeeTox officials say.
"More sensitive, predictable in vitro screens such as this that have direct implications for hazard identification and risk assessment can save drug developers valuable time and money," says Dr. James McKim, Chief Scientific Officer and CeeTox founder.
The CeeTox team has analyzed more than 4,000 new chemical entities and has repeatedly demonstrated the value of early in vitro toxicity data in the drug discovery process.
Cellular Dynamics International, Inc. is a leading developer of next-generation stem cell technologies for drug development, cell therapy, tissue engineering and organ regeneration.
Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave Media
Source: James McKim, CeeTox
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