In Vitro Robotic Assay for Estrogenic Activity

最近的科学调查表明，塑料、药品、杀虫剂、化妆品、食品添加剂等中使用的许多化学品都是内分泌干扰物（ED）。ED以各种方式干扰激素活性，在非常低的浓度（皮摩尔至纳摩尔）下对许多生理过程产生显著的不利影响，特别是对胎儿或发育中的哺乳动物。ED在我们环境中的流行和作用保证了高度特异性，灵敏度，可靠性，快速性和成本效益的检测的发展。因此，各种政府机构（EPA、FDA和ICCVAM）和积极主动的公司明确地期望用于EA的体外机器人测定，但是没有这样的测定在商业上是可行的。 可用的，更少的验证。 CertiChem（CCi）刚刚成功完成了一个I期SBIR项目，以证明使用MCF-7细胞增殖开发EA机器人检测是可行的。在该II期申请中，CCi建议改进并广泛验证该检测方法，以便其可以在III期完全商业化。CCi还建议检查用于食品和塑料中的一组抗氧化剂的EA的理论预测与通过该机器人细胞增殖测定测量的实际EA之间的关系。 我们的EA机器人筛选试验的验证在商业上应该是重要的，因为大量的化学品（> 10，000）-更少的化学混合物-应该由盈利，非盈利或政府实体筛选EA。我们的机器人检测数据也将具有商业重要性，因为它将使我们能够设计出不含EA的食品和塑料添加剂的专有配方。

Recent scientific investigations have shown that many chemicals used in plastics, pharmaceuticals, )esticides, cosmetics, food additives, etc. are endocrine disruptors (EDs). EDs interfere in various ways with hormonal activity to have significant adverse effects on many physiological processes at very low (picomolar to nanomolar) concentrations, especially on fetal or developing mammals. The prevalence and actions of EDs in our environment warrants the development of highly specific, sensitive, reliable, rapid, and cost-effective detection. Consequently, various governmental bodies (EPA, FDA, and ICCVAM) and proactive corporations explicitly desire an in vitro robotic assay for EA, but no such assay is commercially available, much less validated. CertiChem (CCi) has just successfully completed a Phase I SBIR project to demonstrate that it is feasible to develop a robotic assay for EA using MCF-7 cell proliferation. In this Phase II application, CCi proposes to improve and extensively validate this assay so that it can be fully commercialized in Phase III. CCi also proposes to examine the relationship between theoretical predictions of EA for a set of antioxidants used in foodstuffs and plastics and the actual EA as measured by this robotic cell proliferation assay. Validation of our robotic screening assay for EA should be commercially important because of the large number of chemicals (>10,000) - much less chemical mixtures -that should be screened for EA by profit, non-profit, or governmental entities. Data from our robotic assay will also be of commercial importance because it will enable us to design proprietary formulations of additives that lack EA for foodstuffs and plastics.