Tools Designed to Study Genomic Instability

A new second-generation poly-adenylyltransferase [ADP]-ribose polymerase (PARP) in vivo pharmacodynamic assay that accurately measures net poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) levels in cellular extracts, is being used to document differences in PAR levels in human tumor lysates from a variety of tissues, organs, and xenografts.

PARP is a protein involved in a number of cellular processes including catalyzing the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD)-dependent addition of PAR onto itself and other adjacent nuclear proteins. PARP-1 is widely regarded as a promising target for the development of drugs useful in various regimes of cancer therapy, inflammation, ischemia, and neurodegeneration. More recently, the discovery that breast cancers deficient in homologous recombination are sensitive to nontoxic PARP inhibitors has resulted in efforts by numerous pharmaceutical companies to develop PARP-1 specific drugs.

Amsbio's (Abingdon, UK) PARP in vivo pharmacodynamic assay uses a validated sample processing regime and a chemiluminescent, sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format, with precoated 96-stripwell plates. The assay reports PAR level with high signal to noise ratio; sensitivity of 2 pg/mL and a linear dynamic range to 1,000 pg/mL. Consequently, the PARP in vivo pharmacodynamic assay offers an exciting new application that provides evidence of drug action on molecular targets and generates baseline values that may be used to stratify patient response to therapy.

AMS Biotechnology (Amsbio) is an international provider of products and services for life sciences research. The Amsbio range includes over 23,000 polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, peptides, recombinant proteins, extracellular matrix, molecular detection reagents, tissue DNA, RNA, protein and microarray products. Key research areas include apoptosis, cell invasion and migration, cell signaling, DNA damage, electrophoresis, glycobiology, posttranslational modification, and stem cell biology.

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