Adaptation of aequorin functional assay to high throughput screening

J Biomol Screen. 2002 Feb;7(1):57-65. doi: 10.1177/108705710200700108.

Abstract

AequoScreen, a cellular aequorin-based functional assay, has been optimized for luminescent high-throughput screening (HTS) of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCRs). AequoScreen is a homogeneous assay in which the cells are loaded with the apoaequorin cofactor coelenterazine, diluted in assay buffer, and injected into plates containing the samples to be tested. A flash of light is emitted following the calcium increase resulting from the activation of the GPCR by the sample. Here we have validated a new plate reader, the Hamamatsu Photonics FDSS6000, for HTS in 96- and 384-well plates with CHO-K1 cells stably coexpressing mitochondrial apoaequorin and different GPCRs (AequoScreen cell lines). The acquisition time, plate type, and cell number per well have been optimized to obtain concentration-response curves with 4000 cells/well in 384-well plates and a high signal:background ratio. The FDSS6000 and AequoScreen cell lines allow reading of twenty 96- or 384-well plates in 1 h with Z' values of 0.71 and 0.78, respectively. These results bring new insights to functional assays, and therefore reinforce the interest in aequorin-based assays in a HTS environment.

MeSH terms

  • Aequorin / analysis*
  • Aequorin / chemistry*
  • Animals
  • Automation
  • Biotechnology / instrumentation
  • Biotechnology / methods*
  • CHO Cells
  • Cricetinae
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Humans
  • Ligands
  • Orexin Receptors
  • Photons
  • Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2B
  • Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
  • Receptors, Neuropeptide / analysis
  • Receptors, Pituitary Hormone / analysis
  • Receptors, Serotonin / analysis
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Spectrometry, Fluorescence / instrumentation
  • Spectrometry, Fluorescence / methods*
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • Ligands
  • Orexin Receptors
  • Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2B
  • Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
  • Receptors, Neuropeptide
  • Receptors, Pituitary Hormone
  • Receptors, Serotonin
  • melanin-concentrating hormone receptor
  • Aequorin