Validation of Screening Assays for Ligand Gated ion Channels on Qpatch HTX

Abstract

QPatch HTX has the highest throughput in the QPatch series. With signature features such as unattended operations, eight pipettes and the integrated microfluidic glass flow channels of the QPlates, the QPatch HTXis well suited for testing ligand gated ion channels. The recent advent of a QPlate with 10 patch holes per measurement site, instead of the classical single patch holehas minimized problems with low expression or problems with stability of the recodings over time. The success rate of recording on QPatch HTX is therefore approaching 100% for a number of different applications. We have previously shown that compound profiling on a wide variety of ligand-gated ion channels is certainly possible on the QPatch. With the increased stability and success rates of QPatch HTX, we demonstrate that the QPatch also can be used as an efficient screening tool for ligand gated ion channels. In this study, we have tested 3 different ion channels in a screening assay on QPatch HTX: GABA α1β1γ2 (γ-amino butyric acid receptor), ASIC a1 (acid sensing ion channel) and nAchR α1 (nicotinic acetylcholine receptor). These assays each have their own unique set of challenges: Low functional expression, extremely high elicited current amplitudes, and fast desensitization respectively. In this poster we present data to compare throughput and assay quality between the QPatch HTX in multi-hole mode and the classic single-hole mode in a screening scenario.