A Nonradioactive High-Throughput/High-Content Assay for Measurement of the Human Serotonin Reuptake Transporter Function In VitroScreening and Early Efficacy Group, Human Nutrition Research and Development, DSM Nutritional Products, Kaiseraugst, Switzerland
Screening and Early Efficacy Group, Human Nutrition Research and Development, DSM Nutritional Products, Kaiseraugst, Switzerland
Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Lead Discovery Centre, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
Screening and Early Efficacy Group, Human Nutrition Research and Development, DSM Nutritional Products, Kaiseraugst, Switzerland
Screening and Early Efficacy Group, Human Nutrition Research and Development, DSM Nutritional Products, Kaiseraugst, Switzerland
Screening and Early Efficacy Group, Human Nutrition Research and Development, DSM Nutritional Products, Kaiseraugst, Switzerland
Both the tricyclic and specific serotonin reuptake inhibitor classes of antidepressants act primarily by inhibiting the reuptake of released serotonin by the human serotonin reuptake transporter (hSERT). In this article, the authors describe the use of a fluorescent substrate of the transporter (4-(4-(dimethylamino)-styrl)-N-methylpyridinium, ASP) to develop a microplate-based high-throughput screen for hSERT function. The assay is sensitive to known inhibitors of serotonin uptake, including fluoxetine (Prozac), with the correct rank order of potency and IC50 values close to those reported in the literature for tritiated serotonin uptake. The authors also describe the validation of the assay for natural product screening using a test set of 2400 pure phyto-chemicals and 80 plant extracts. The mean
Key Words: hSERT • serotonin • high-throughput screening • high-content screening • functional assay
This version was published on December
1, 2006 Journal of Biomolecular Screening, Vol. 11, No. 8,
1027-1034 (2006) |
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of the screened plates was 0.53. Hit rates, confirmation rates, and validation of the hits in a "classical" assay for serotonin uptake are all reported. The assay can also be read in "high-content" mode using a subcellular imaging device, which allows direct detection of possible assay interference by acutely cytotoxic compounds. Among the compounds identified were several previously reported inhibitors of the hSERT, as well as compounds having structural similarity to the tricyclic antidepressant drugs.