Bioprospecting for drugs

Transferable neuronal mini-cultures to accelerate screening in primary and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons

The effort and cost of obtaining neurons for large-scale screens has limited drug discovery in neuroscience. To overcome these obstacles, we fabricated arrays of releasable polystyrene micro-rafts to generate thousands of uniform, mobile neuron mini-cultures. These mini-cultures sustain synaptically-active neurons which can be easily transferred, thus increasing screening throughput by >30-fold. Compared to conventional methods, micro-raft cultures exhibited significantly improved neuronal viability and sample-to-sample consistency. We validated the screening utility of these mini-cultures for both mouse neurons and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons by successfully detecting disease-related defects in synaptic transmission and identifying candidate small molecule therapeutics. This affordable high-throughput approach has the potential to transform drug discovery in neuroscience.

Determination of tea catechins

An overview of analytical methods for the measurement of biologically important tea catechins is presented. Liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis are the most cited techniques for catechin separation, identification and quantitation. Liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection is frequently used; however, mass spectrometry, electrochemical, fluorescence and chemiluminescence detection are also utilized in cases where more sensitive or selective detection is needed. Two modes of capillary electrophoresis, capillary zone electrophoresis and micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography, have been employed for the determination of catechins. Both modes of capillary electrophoresis are based on ultraviolet detection. Additional analytical techniques, such as gas chromatography, thin-layer chromatography, paper chromatography, spectrophotometry, biosensing, chemiluminescence and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy have also been utilized for the determination of catechins and are reviewed herein.