News from Kitos

In a recent perspective article published on Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (link), various members of the European Cell-Based Assays Interest Group summarized limitations of traditional cell-based disease models and discuss how patient-derived cultures, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology and 3D co-cultures, complemented by single-cell imaging, microfluidics and gene editing technologies, could improve clinical significance of  preclinical drug testing. In this view, limitations of standard cell-line screens and in vivo xenografts contributed to the failure of many drug candidates that did not show clinical efficacy:
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We are proud to announce that a member of our team recently coauthored a paper published in the prestigious Journal of Medicinal Chemistry which shows the activity of novel unsymmetrical 2,5-disubstituted 1,3,4-oxadiazoles on the growth of a panel of tumor  and non-tumor cell lines.

Link to journal page

Researchers from Harvard Medical School, USA, reported in "Nature Protocols" the characterization of a 3D culture system that exhibits key events in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis, including extracellular aggregation of β-amyloid and accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau.

In order to track individual cells in live-cell imaging, fluorescent DNA stains can be used as intracellular reference markers. Hoechst 33342 would be the best option to monitor cell proliferation in live-cell imaging since it is highly selective for DNA, fluorogenic in wash-free imaging and applicable in different cell types. However, Hoechst 33342 shows toxicity to live cells in long-term exposure because of the phototoxic effect of blue light required for its excitation.

Researchers of the University of Cambridge (UK) described, in the prestigious journal "Nature protocols", a method to grow human adult liver and pancreatic cells into self-assembling 3D structures that can sustain long-term expansion.