Ity in pharmaceutical products and in otherSensitive Cell-Based Potency Assay for BoNT/AFigure 6. Development of a sensitive screening CBPA. A. Protocols for the sensitive and screening (in italic) cell-based potency assays (CBPAs) utilizing differentiated SiMa cells and ECL-sandwich ELISA. B. Representative screening CBPA with SiMa cells treated with 0.014?0 nM BoNT/A (150 kDa) for 6 h followed by overnight incubation in toxin-free medium to allow for SNAP25197 accumulation. Average EC50 of 125 independent assays performed by three operators is shown. C. Dilutional linearity-recovery table with concentrations from 1.75 to 0.5 relative potencies (R.P.). The last column exemplifies how many individual assays produced data in which the 18334597 confidence interval (C.I.) overlapped 1 making that dilution indistinguishable from the reference 16preparation in that specific assay. Percent recoveries from 86 to 117 demonstrate excellent accuracy of the assay. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.CI-1011 biological activity 0049516.gsituations in which the toxin is present in very low concentrations. But during outbreaks when patients are waiting for a diagnosis or for research to identify BoNT/A inhibitors, the speed of the assay becomes more important. Our team was able to develop a shorter, but yet sensitive assay (Figure 6, EC50 = 120 pM) that can produce reliable measurement of BoNT/A activity in only 2K days. Additionally, we rigorously optimized and characterized both CBPAs (sensitive and screening, figure 6A). For the sensitive CBPA we optimized and standardized twenty parameters comprising cell growth and differentiation, BoNT/A treatment, andECL-ELISA (Table 1). Moreover, dilutional linearity/recovery experiments performed with both assays by three operators demonstrated excellent accuracy and precision (Tables 2 and S1). The optimized CBPA was slightly modified to test BOTOXH by designing a custom medium to overcome the adverse effects of the excipients found in the formulation (Figure 8A). 1676428 In conclusion, this is the first CBPA utilizing an established cell line reported to measure BoNT/A biological activity in BOTOXH possessing sensitivity equal or superior (EC50,1-0.4 U/well) to the mouse bioassay and being specific for BoNT/A by design. FurtherSensitive Cell-Based Potency Assay for BoNT/ATable 2. System suitability-Sensitive Assay: Excellent accuracy and linearity.BoNT/A Dilutional linearity//Recovery Table for Sensitive Assay Concentration 0.576 0.666 Expected Relative Potency 1.75 1.5 Actual Relative Potency 1.69 1.50 1.34 0.85 0.68 0.55 Confidence Interval (CI) 1.54?.85 1.36?.66 1.26?.41 0.78?.91 0.63?.73 0.52?.59 Number of Percent Recovery assays 96.3 100 106.8 111.9 103.3 111.6 4 4 4 4 4 4 Number of assay with CI overlapping 1 0 of 4 0 of 4 0 of 4 0 of 4 0 of 4 0 of0.86 1.1.56 2.1.25 0.0.66 0.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049516.tdevelopment, validation, and cross-validation of a version of this CBPA has resulted in FDA, Health Canada, and European Union approval for use in the potency testing of BOTOXH (onabotulinumtoxinA), BOTOXH Cosmetic, and VistabelH.Materials and Methods Cell Lines and Growth ConditionsUnless otherwise stated, tissue culture reagents were from Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA. PC-12- Rat pheochromocy-toma (CRL-1721; ATCC) were cultured in collagen IV plates in ATCC’s recommended medium. Differentiation medium: RPMI medium with 2 mM GlutaMAXTM, 16 B27 supplement, 16 N2 supplement, 10 mM HEPES, 1 mM Sodium JW-74 custom synthesis Pyruvate, 50 ng/ mL NGF, 100 U/mL Penicillin, and 100 mg/.Ity in pharmaceutical products and in otherSensitive Cell-Based Potency Assay for BoNT/AFigure 6. Development of a sensitive screening CBPA. A. Protocols for the sensitive and screening (in italic) cell-based potency assays (CBPAs) utilizing differentiated SiMa cells and ECL-sandwich ELISA. B. Representative screening CBPA with SiMa cells treated with 0.014?0 nM BoNT/A (150 kDa) for 6 h followed by overnight incubation in toxin-free medium to allow for SNAP25197 accumulation. Average EC50 of 125 independent assays performed by three operators is shown. C. Dilutional linearity-recovery table with concentrations from 1.75 to 0.5 relative potencies (R.P.). The last column exemplifies how many individual assays produced data in which the 18334597 confidence interval (C.I.) overlapped 1 making that dilution indistinguishable from the reference 16preparation in that specific assay. Percent recoveries from 86 to 117 demonstrate excellent accuracy of the assay. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049516.gsituations in which the toxin is present in very low concentrations. But during outbreaks when patients are waiting for a diagnosis or for research to identify BoNT/A inhibitors, the speed of the assay becomes more important. Our team was able to develop a shorter, but yet sensitive assay (Figure 6, EC50 = 120 pM) that can produce reliable measurement of BoNT/A activity in only 2K days. Additionally, we rigorously optimized and characterized both CBPAs (sensitive and screening, figure 6A). For the sensitive CBPA we optimized and standardized twenty parameters comprising cell growth and differentiation, BoNT/A treatment, andECL-ELISA (Table 1). Moreover, dilutional linearity/recovery experiments performed with both assays by three operators demonstrated excellent accuracy and precision (Tables 2 and S1). The optimized CBPA was slightly modified to test BOTOXH by designing a custom medium to overcome the adverse effects of the excipients found in the formulation (Figure 8A). 1676428 In conclusion, this is the first CBPA utilizing an established cell line reported to measure BoNT/A biological activity in BOTOXH possessing sensitivity equal or superior (EC50,1-0.4 U/well) to the mouse bioassay and being specific for BoNT/A by design. FurtherSensitive Cell-Based Potency Assay for BoNT/ATable 2. System suitability-Sensitive Assay: Excellent accuracy and linearity.BoNT/A Dilutional linearity//Recovery Table for Sensitive Assay Concentration 0.576 0.666 Expected Relative Potency 1.75 1.5 Actual Relative Potency 1.69 1.50 1.34 0.85 0.68 0.55 Confidence Interval (CI) 1.54?.85 1.36?.66 1.26?.41 0.78?.91 0.63?.73 0.52?.59 Number of Percent Recovery assays 96.3 100 106.8 111.9 103.3 111.6 4 4 4 4 4 4 Number of assay with CI overlapping 1 0 of 4 0 of 4 0 of 4 0 of 4 0 of 4 0 of0.86 1.1.56 2.1.25 0.0.66 0.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049516.tdevelopment, validation, and cross-validation of a version of this CBPA has resulted in FDA, Health Canada, and European Union approval for use in the potency testing of BOTOXH (onabotulinumtoxinA), BOTOXH Cosmetic, and VistabelH.Materials and Methods Cell Lines and Growth ConditionsUnless otherwise stated, tissue culture reagents were from Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA. PC-12- Rat pheochromocy-toma (CRL-1721; ATCC) were cultured in collagen IV plates in ATCC’s recommended medium. Differentiation medium: RPMI medium with 2 mM GlutaMAXTM, 16 B27 supplement, 16 N2 supplement, 10 mM HEPES, 1 mM Sodium Pyruvate, 50 ng/ mL NGF, 100 U/mL Penicillin, and 100 mg/.