Gentronix has introduced BlueScreen HC – a highly specific and sensitive early stage human cell based assay that can be used to identify chemicals that cause damage to DNA, a property known a genotoxicity.
Based on technology already proven in the pharmaceutical industry, BlueScreen can be used to provide a rapid assessment of potential hazard and thereby accelerate the development of personal care and other products.
Due to the fact that genotoxic chemicals may cause cancer or damage to DNA that could be inherited, it is a requirement that chemicals that come into contact with humans and the environment are tested to ensure that they are safe to use. The current safety testing requirements can be expensive, time consuming and existing tests can often lead to a false positive result that means a chemical is ‘labelled’ as toxic when it is not. Therefore there is a need for a test system that is accurate, sensitive and enables more efficient product development.
Recently published data is available on the development and validation of BlueScreen HC and its effectiveness in producing positive results for the detection of all classes of genotoxicity . The assay works by looking at the up-regulation of a key gene, GADD45a in response to a chemical that causes damage to or interferes with DNA. It does this by measuring the luminescence generated from an enzyme Gaussia Luciferase that originates from the marine crustacean Gaussia princeps, the gene for which has been incorporated into the human TK6 cells used in the assay and linked to GADD45a production.
Highly sensitive and specific, a negative BlueScreen result provides personal care, cosmetics and consumer product manufacturers with increased confidence that a chemical may be appropriate for use in a finished product.
Importantly, the introduction of BlueScreen also expands technology access for companies developing fragrance materials or products that cannot make use of fluorescent reporter based systems like Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP).
The assay is performed using a 96 well plate format allowing for small amounts of compounds to be evaluated over multiple dilutions. The assay is complete after 48hrs providing data quickly that can better inform chemical research and development. The assay can also be performed with ‘S9’ metabolic fraction for the detection of the pro-genotoxins further extending the utility of the assay.
