Stroke Drug Development Targeting Astrocytes

It has been established that astrocytes can modulate the pathological process of stroke through multiple pathways and that the same pathological phenomenon may have both beneficial and detrimental effects. For example, glial scarring impedes the spread of tissue damage to healthy tissue but also impedes neural repair function. Because of the complex role of astrocytes in stroke pathology, the development of stroke drugs targeting astrocytes has become more specific and more challenging. Therefore, Ace Neuroscience offers a comprehensive service ranging from identification and validation of astrocyte targets to pharmacological evaluation of astrocyte modulators in stroke to facilitate the study of stroke drugs targeting astrocytes.

Target Identification & Validation

Studies have shown that astrocytes can modulate excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, mitochondrial function, and other pathways during the stroke. Because of the complex functions of astrocytes, modulation of astrocytes and thus stroke treatment requires more specificity and targeting of modulators. Therefore, Ace Neuroscience offers a comprehensive service with the aim of finding specific targets.

• We have established various stroke astrocyte models to screen and validate candidate targets.
• We provide gene ontology enrichment analysis and KEGG enrichment analysis to screen candidate targets.
• We establish in vitro and in vivo stroke models by drug administration and genetic manipulation to explore the effect of candidate targets on stroke.
• We determine the activity and mechanism of action of candidate targets by western blotting, ELISA, luciferin reporter system, RNA pull-down, RIP-PCR, gel migration, and electrophoretic mobility shift assays.

High Throughput Screening of Astrocytes Modulators

After screening astrocytes for specific targets in stroke pathology, we provide high-throughput screening platforms to perform high-throughput screening of modulators based on the characteristics of the targets. In parallel, we provide comprehensive services to explore the effects of candidate modulators on astrocytes.

• Based on our small molecule library, including ultra-large compound library, natural product library, and fragment library, we have established different high throughput screening platforms to find astrocyte modulators against targets.
• We chemically modify potential astrocytic modulators to make them more specific while enriching the number of modulators.
• We provide relevant models of astrocytes to validate the different effects and mechanisms of modulators.

Preclinical Evaluation of Drug Candidates for the Treatment of Stroke

We have validated the effect of modulators on astrocytes. Immediately afterward, we offer a variety of pharmacological activity assessment services to investigate the therapeutic effects of astrocyte modulators on stroke while exploring their specific mechanisms of action and drug metabolism.

• We provide different in vitro and in vivo stroke models to validate the therapeutic effect of astrocyte modulators on stroke and to further explore the mechanism of action of astrocytes.
• We investigate the effects of astrocyte modulators on astrocyte-related signaling pathways through molecular co-expression correlation, molecular interaction, molecular localization, activity, and conformation assays.

If you would like to learn more about our services, please feel free to contact us.

1. Liu, Z., et al. Astrocytes, therapeutic targets for neuroprotection and neurorestoration in ischemic stroke. Prog Neurobiol. 2016, 144(p.103-20.