Evaluation and Optimization of Compound Solubilization and Delivery Methods in a Two-Tiered Ion Channel Lead Optimization Triage

Low-volume dispensing of neat dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) into plate-based assays conserves compound, assay reagents, and intermediate dilution plate cost and, as we demonstrate here, significantly improves structure-activity relationship resolution. Acoustic dispensing of DMSO solutions into standard volume 384W plates yielded inconsistent results in studies with 2 cell lines because of apparent effects on the integrity of the cell monolayer (increased intracellular Ca++ levels as indicated by elevated basal dye fluorescence after acoustic transfer). PocketTip-mediated transfer was successful at increasing apparent potency on a more consistent basis. Notably, the correlation coefficient among fluorescence imaging plate reader (FLIPR):electrophysiology (EP) across a representative similar to 125 compound collection was increased similar to 5x via conversion to a PocketTip direct dispensation, indicating a triage assay more predictive of activity in the decisional patch-clamp assay. Very importantly, the EP-benchmarked false-negative rate as measured by compounds with FLIPR EC50 more than the highest concentration tested fell from >11% to 5% assay-wide, and the relative FLIPR: EP rank-order fidelity increased from 55% to 78%. Elimination of the aqueous intermediate step provided additional benefits, including reduced assay cost, decreased cycle time, and reduced wet compound consumption rate. Direct DMSO dispensing has broad applicability to cell-based functional assays of multiple varieties, especially in cases where limit solubility in assay buffer is a recognized impediment to maximizing interassay connectivity.