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SiDMAP Launches a Metabolomics Service for Early Detection of Drug-Induced Liver and Kidney Toxicity.

Posted on: Monday, 13 October 2008, 09:00 CDT

SiDMAP, LLC, announced that it has expanded its SiDTox(TM) services to enable rapid and specific detection of drug-induced organ toxicity. Using its proprietary metabolomics technology platform, SiDMAP is able to monitor changes in vital metabolite fluxes in response to drug treatment to quickly determine organ toxicity before structural or morphological damage occurs.

With recent advances in drug discovery, large numbers of potential new drugs have been identified. Yet, a big obstacle that remains in drug discovery and development is the lack of a reliable way to screen these drug candidates to determine toxicity levels early enough in the process. Based on research performed by SiDMAP in collaboration with the Center for Metabolomics at the FDA National Center for Toxicological Research (www.fda.gov/nctr/science/centers/metabolomics/index.htm), SiDTox(TM) now also includes a cost-effective and non-invasive test which promises to better enable pharmaceutical researchers to rapidly detect drug-induced toxicity prior to organ damage.

"Using non-invasive and non-emitting 13C glucose tracer, we are able to quantify synthesis and turnover of selected metabolites in real time in order to develop the necessary translational plasma, tissue and urine isotopomer profiles routinely applicable as toxicity biomarkers in humans," commented Dr. Laszlo Boros, SiDMAP's Chief Scientific Advisor. "Our tracer substrate approach utilizes the accurate assessment and quantification of cross-talk and flux alterations among physiologically vital substrate and product pools and their disruption to provide early indications of the presence and mechanisms of drug-induced toxicity, as seen in the FDA study involving valproic acid."

Presently, drug toxicities, in general, are assessed by morphological markers of organ damage, proteomic and metabonomics methods and gene expression profiles. However, there remains a need for rapid markers to detect drug toxicity prior to irreversible organ damage.

About SiDMAP

SiDMAP provides flux-based, metabolic profiling services to pharmaceutical, biotech and research organizations seeking to enhance drug development processes, and develop further insights into a drug's mechanism of action and disease states. SiDMAP's unique technology platform, exclusively licensed from Los Angeles BioMedical Research Institute at Harbor U.C.L.A Medical Center, measures and analyzes metabolic pathway flux to gain unique insights into biological function. SiDMAP assays provide clients with accurate metabolic analysis of the systemic impact of drugs in cells, in preclinical models or in humans. The Company continues to develop biomarkers to assess efficacy and safety of drugs both pre-clinically as well as in the clinic. SiDMAP is head quartered in Los Angeles, California.

Source: Business Wire

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