Cisbio Bioassays Now Offers Function and Binding Tools to Investigate All Muscarinic Receptors

Cisbio Bioassays today announced that it has expanded its catalogue of Tag-lite® fluorescent ligands, used for the investigation and screening of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) activity, to 43 ligands. The newest ligands target muscarinic receptors, making Cisbio Bioassays the only company offering non-radioactive and cell-based tools that address the entire muscarinic receptor family.

Muscarinic is a GPCR family consisting of five different types of receptors. This family is of particular interest in drug discovery studies for diseases including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), estimated to become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030.i Until now, researchers have relied on time consuming and costly ligand binding radioactive methods for profiling the entire muscarinic family.

Cisbio Bioassays’ offering now enables researchers to investigate the five muscarinic receptors with multiple binding and functional assays that are based on one technology, avoiding competing assay formats. Tests performed with the company’s ready-to-use reagents also allow for the investigation of the biological complexity of these cell membrane receptors using the same cellular material, which eliminates the need to develop and qualify cells beforehand. These non-radioactive and cell-based tools simplify protocols, reduce development time and increase assay precision.

“We are constantly enhancing our Tag-lite platform with ligands, cell lines and assays as part of our ongoing commitment to provide a complete, non-radioactive drug discovery solution for accelerated GPCR research,” said François Degorce, director of marketing and communication at Cisbio Bioassays. “Our ligand catalogue now enables the investigation of 59 distinct GPCRs and, as the correlation between radioactivity and Tag-lite has solid data behind it, we continue to look at other, entire receptor families.”

Tag-lite is a rapid, non-radioactive platform used for cell surface receptor investigation, small molecule and biotherapeutic screening. Streamlined for highly selective ligand binding, receptor oligomer studies and functional assays. Tag-lite can be used in combination with Cisbio Bioassays’ cAMP and IP-One second messenger accumulation assays, Cellul’Erk and Akt assays and is supported by a full range of services for the custom design and production of plasmids, cells and ligands.