Launches new transporter assay for BCRP

Cyprotex launches new transporter assay to investigate BCRP interactions

Cyprotex announces that it has introduced a new transporter assay service to assess BCRP (breast cancer resistance protein; ABCG2) interactions. This new assay extends Cyprotex's existing range of services to investigate permeability and transporter interactions.

Transporters have been shown to play a part in clinically relevant drug-drug interactions. The pharmaceutical industry is now recognising that investigating transporter-based interactions at an early stage using in vitro methods is important for understanding the potential impact of these interactions. This interest has intensified since the March 2010 review paper by the International Transporter Consortium (ITC) published in Nature Reviews in Drug Discovery. The consortium includes industrial regulatory (FDA), and academic scientists with expertise in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics. The review provides recommendations about which transporters are most relevant in terms of pharmacokinetic and drug-drug interactions, what methodology to use, and how data should be interpreted from in vitro assays.

The ITC recommends investigation of the BCRP transporter due to its clinical importance in the absorption and disposition of drugs. BCRP is expressed in a broad range of tissues and is one of several transporters involved in drug efflux. BCRP has been implicated in clinical drug-drug interactions, and inter-individual variability in biological processes due to genetic polymorphisms.

Katya Tsaioun, Ph.D., Cyprotex's Chief Scientific Officer, comments on the launch of this new service. "An understanding of the role of drug transporters is being increasingly recognised as important to our understanding of pharmacokinetics and drug-drug interactions. The March 2010 ITC white paper provides best practices guidance for assessing the transporters of clinical relevance. Cyprotex is pleased to make the BCRP transporter assay now readily available to drug-discovery organisations."

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