However, when I was asked to write about a new assay for semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidases (SSAOs), my enthusiasm waned. This is a subject about which I know nothing, so I searched the literature to learn as much as I could. After reading several review articles I was able to write this scintillating paragraph: Continue reading “When the Writing Gets Tough, the Tough Write about Semicarbazide-Sensitive Amine Oxidases”
Dysfunction of histone deacetylases (HDACs) is associated with many diseases including cancers, asthma and allergies, inflammatory diseases and disorders affecting the central nervous system. Because of their involvement in such a wide range of pathologies, HDACs have become a target for drug discovery. Traditional HDAC activity assays are either isotopic or fluorescent assays using artificial substrates that are prone to artifacts or fluorescence interference. There is a need for a functional assay that is sensitive, accurate and amenable to drug-screening activities.
A recent paper by Halley et al. in the Journal of Biomolecular Screening describes the evaluation of a bioluminogenic HDAC assay, the HDAC-Glo™ I/II Assays,
Continue reading “A Scalable and Sensitive Assay for HDAC Activity”
Life is complicated. So is death. And when the cells in your multiwell plate die after compound treatment, it’s not enough to know that they died. You need to know how they died: apoptosis or necrosis? Or, have you really just reduced viability, rather than induced death? Is the cytotoxicity you see dose-dependent? If you look earlier during drug treatment of your cells, do you see markers of apoptosis? If you wait longer, do you observe necrosis? If you reduce the dosage of your test compound, is it still cytotoxic? Continue reading “Describing Life and Death in the Cell”
