Screen for Redox Activity of Compounds

The design of new and effective drugs is a multi-billion dollar business, requiring great expense and extensive testing of drug candidate compounds.  Obtaining a better understanding of the pharmacodynamics and mechanisms of action of drug candidates is an important and necessary step in optimizing any lead compound.      

A property of increasing importance to some drugs' mechanism of action is their redox activity; in particular, a common factor in drugs aimed at affecting membrane bound transport proteins appears to be their ability to redox couple to the proposed biological target.  Pharma companies have taken an interest in this property, and yet current methods to screen compounds for this property are cumbersome and of low resolution. 

The aim of this project is to present and validate a simple, higher resolution method for assaying the redox activity of a drug, reagent or toxin.  This method lends itself to high throughput screening, and can prove very useful in improving the efficacy of certain drug candidates.