The new Cell Cycle assay is designed to provide faster, easier cell analysis capabilities contributing to the overall understanding of the cell cycle and how different compounds affect this process. The assay will prove particularly useful in cancer screening market, where researchers look for small molecule compounds that can arrest cancer cells division.
Cells in different stages of cell cycle express different genes and proteins. Hence, in addition to determining viability and apoptotic cell fractions, every experiment involving cell populations should be normalized for cell cycle.
While there are other similar reagents on the market, Guava's assay has been optimised to work on the Guava instruments. Once the researchers have fixed their cells, it is a simple one-step, mix and read assay, the first product of its kind available.
Guava's improvements to the conventional cell cycle assay include the combination of staining reagents in a single optimised format, which eliminates the need for complex reagent preparation following cell fixation.
A spokeswoman for Guava told DrugResearcher.com: "With the initial launch of the Guava Cell Cycle Assay over a year ago, Guava provided the instrument, the software to prepare the cells as well as the reagent from off-the-shelf components."
"Due to customer demand, we decided to provide a reagent for this assay."
The assay uses the nuclear DNA stain propidium iodide (PI) to directly discriminate cells at different stages of the cell cycle. Three histogram markers distinguish the specific cell cycle phases, while an optional fourth marker offers a way to identify apoptotic cells, cell aggregates or an internal standard. Absolute cell counts are provided automatically.
The incorporation of the absolute count feature can enable researchers to determine whether changes in cell cycle and other functional parameters and biomarker expression are a result of drug treatments or are caused by changes in cell number due to cell proliferation or cell death.
The assay intends to eliminate much of the guesswork involved in working with cell populations. This has proved a major obstacle for immunologists and cancer researchers working in the drug discovery and bioprocess development.
The assay is in keeping with the current crop of products Guava has introduced to the market. Its technology aims to address the need to make traditional cell analysis applications more accessible to the non-expert.
Together with Guava's leading Personal Cell Analysis system (PCA) and CellHealth Profiling assays, the new Cell Cycle assay is designed to slot in and expands the company's offering of sensitive single cell microcapillary cytometry assays
"The basic assay and software were in development for about six months, with the reagent taking an additional three months, mostly due to an accelerated stability study," the spokeswoman said.
The assay also provides protocols for use with either individual tubes or 96-well microtitre plates, minimizing assay development time. The assay's automated analysis capability can display results in both histogram and statistical formats.
The Cell Cycle assay is available now at Guava's website.