Patent ID: 6113763
Filing Date: 2000-09-05
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
A method for quantitatively testing a chemical compound in vitro for effectiveness in altering enzyme activity of at least one enzyme in mammalian cells involved in a disease by measuring multiple enzymatic products present in the cells which comprises:(a) treating said mammalian cells in a culture medium in vitro with the chemical compound to be tested;(b) separating the treated cells from the culture medium;(c) disrupting the cells in a fluid medium to produce an admixture of cellular debris consisting of a solid phase, and a liquid phase which contains the multiple enzymatic products;(d) removing the debris from the liquid phase;(e) subjecting the liquid phase to capillary electrophoresis in a single run wherein the multiple enzymatic products produced by the enzyme are separated;(f) continuously scanning the multiple enzymatic products separated in step (e) by the capillary electrophoresis with a spectrophotometer which measures light absorbance to produce a chart with peaks of light absorbance for each of the multiple enzymatic products; and(g) determining the effectiveness of the compound in altering the enzyme activity by comparing the peaks of the multiple products to the peaks produced from a control consisting of cells not treated with the compound.