Mass Spectrometry Imaging Services Now Available
Jul 01 2013
As part of an ongoing effort to enhance our imaging capabilities, Charles River has signed a worldwide sales and marketing agreement to promote and sell ImaBiotech's quantitative Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI) services. MSI is a new translational tool used to make more informed decisions at every step from drug discovery to preclinical development.
This high-resolution (up to 20 µm resolution achievable) technique can be used for qualitative purposes and allows the simultaneous localization of the parent compound and its metabolite(s). Furthermore, using the proprietary Quantinetix™ software, the technique can be used to provide quantitative data.
In drug discovery and the early stages of drug development, MSI offers the possibility of getting valuable drug distribution information without the need for labeling of the test compound. For example, in oncology models, MSI can be used to monitor the localization of a drug (and metabolites) in a tumor in comparison to other organs and tissues. Furthermore, the localization of endogenous metabolites of interest (e.g., metabolomics, lipidomics, peptidomics) can be determined as markers of both efficacy and potential drug toxicity.
In the preclinical stages of drug development, MSI can be a useful add-on to QWBA studies. By scanning QWBA sections for the presence of parent compound and metabolites/degradants, MSI can provide information to characterize the nature of the radioactive components detected in QWBA imaging as well as allow the ratio of drug/metabolites to be determined.
Typical studies where MSI can be applied include whole-body distribution (in more than 25 organs), as well as specific organs in support of safety or efficacy investigations (e.g., liver, kidney, brain, heart) or specific tissues where classical dissection and separation of fine histological regions can be advantageously replaced by MSI (skin substructures, CNS substructures, tumors, lung compartments, ocular or intestinal tissues).
To learn more about our new MSI services or any of our other imaging capabilities, please contact us at askcharlesriver@crl.com.
Related Information