30 July 2024

Illuminate Metabolic Pathways with Luciferase Reporter Cells

BPS Bioscience supports scientific discovery with innovative research solutions. Their off-the-shelf luciferase reporter cells enable compound validation using easy cellular readouts, driving therapeutic progress.


Illuminate Metabolic Pathways with Luciferase Reporter Cells

The market for drugs treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic disorders is expected to grow dramatically, fueled by emerging therapies targeting the nuclear receptor thyroid hormone receptor beta (TRβ), or targeting G-protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) such as Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Receptor (GLP-1R).

To support drug development in these research areas, BPS Bioscience has developed a TRβ-GAL4 reporter cell line to interrogate TRβ signaling, and GPCR/CRE conditional reporter cells for drug screening and characterization. Indeed, cell-based assays are essential to the drug development process as they allow researchers to evaluate the biological activity of potential drug candidates, and to discover potential membrane permeability issues or interferences within a complex system that are not seen in biochemical assays.

Inducible reporter assays are an ideal option to study effectors of cell signaling pathways in the context of intact functioning cells. Luciferase reporters downstream of a pathway-specific promoter response element allow simple, robust, and quantitative measurement of signaling activity. They can be applied across a wide variety of cell types and signaling pathways and allow for high throughput screening of large libraries of compounds with inhibitory or activating function.

Applications

  • Identify new agonists or antagonists of a signaling pathway.
  • Screen compound libraries for molecules that selectively alter a target of interest or disease pathway.
  • Decipher the mechanism of action for a compound.
  • Study the parameters affecting a pathway of interest (analysis of function).

Advantages

  • Stable cell lines
  • Extensively validated
  • Provided with cell culture and validation protocols
  • Quantitative readouts
  • Suitable for high-throughput screening

GLP-1R, GIPR, and GCGR/CRE Luciferase Reporter Cells

GPCRs are a large family of proteins involved in many biological processes. They represent important therapeutic targets since approximately 50% of existing drugs target a GPCR. GLP-1R agonists, in particular, made a big splash in the field when they were approved for clinical use to combat obesity.

Figure 1: Illustration of the metabolism three cell lines

Three single clone, stable HEK293 cell lines were generated, each overexpressing a receptor and a Luciferase Reporter under the control of cAMP response elements responding to hormone and analog stimulation by increasing luciferase expression. Luciferase activity can be measured using a simple luminometer and is directly proportional to receptor activation. The three receptors are GLP-1R (78176), GIPR (Gastric inhibitory polypeptide receptor, 78589), or GCGR (glucagon receptor, 82187).
Their three cell lines produce a robust luciferase readout upon stimulation of the cell surface receptor and are ideal for screening candidate molecules and determining their EC50.

  • Experimentally determined EC50 consistent with existing data
  • Strong induction signal: 40 to 300-fold stimulation depending on the cell line
  • Stable signal: luminescence maintained from 4 hours to 6 hours after analog addition
  • Amenable to high throughput: comparable results were obtained using 96-well and 384-well formats
Figure 2: Dose-dependent response of various GLP-1 agonists in GLP-1R/CRE Luciferase Reporter cells.

Thyroid Hormone Receptor (TRβ) Luciferase Reporter Cells

The relative promiscuity of nuclear receptors makes it difficult to validate novel candidate drugs without interference from other nuclear receptors. The TRβ-GAL4 Luciferase Reporter HEK293 Cell Line is a HEK293 cell line expressing firefly luciferase under the control of the GAL4 upstream activation sequence (UAS) with constitutive expression of human thyroid receptor β ligand binding domain (TRβ LBD, amino acids 173-461) fused to the DNA binding domain (DBD) of GAL4 (GAL4 DBD). This system allows specific detection of thyroid hormone-induced activation of TRβ with low cross-reactivity from other nuclear receptors.

Figure 3: Dose-response to T3 measured in TRβ-GAL4 Luciferase Reporter HEK293 Cell Line (82175). Luciferase activity was quantified using ONE-Step™ Luciferase Assay System (60690).

In addition to off-the-shelf cell lines, they offer rapid and dependable screening and profiling services for agonist screening or for determining an IC50. They also provide comprehensive cell line development services, should you not find your cell line of interest in our catalog. Contact us here.

  • Exceptional customer service
  • Project guidance and questions answered in a timely manner
  • Delivery of detailed results

Resources

Illuminate Metabolic Pathways with Luciferase Reporter Cells

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