In Vitro Receptor and Transporter Assays for NIDA Medications Discovery and Abuse Liability Testing (NIDA/VA IAA)

National Institute On Drug Abuse

Investigators

Abstract

The NIDA Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences (DTMC) supports a contract-based research program (the Addiction Treatment Discovery Program) that acts to test potential medications for safety and efficacy in developing them as drugs to be used in the treatment/prevention of drug abuse. This Agreement provides DTMC with reports from the DVA Investigators that assess the pharmacological specificity of lead compounds by screening at a large number of biological targets in vitro. This Agreement will also support in vitro studies to determine the affinity (IC50, Ki) and/or function (EC50, IC50) of test compounds for proteins such as receptors and transporters at specified biological targets indicated by compound profiling or other sources. This Agreement will provide a way to screen additional compounds, possibly large compound libraries, at one or more receptors or transporters in order to determine biological activity, with the objective of discovering specific receptor or transporter ligands with novel chemical structures. This Agreement will allow development of in vitro assays at targets that may be of importance in the development of compounds for the treatment of substance use disorders and their consequences. This Agreement will allow for the performance of and potential development of methods beyond those described herein. This Agreement will allow for the purchase of test compounds on an “as needed” basis.