A comparison of assay performance between the calcium mobilization and the dynamic mass redistribution technologies for the human urotensin receptor.

The popular screening method for urotensin (UT) receptor antagonists is to measure the intracellular calcium concentration with a calcium-sensitive fluorescent dye. This assay format has an inherent limitation on the problem related to the fluorescence interference as it involves fluorescent dyes. In the present study, a label-free assay for the screening of UT receptor antagonists was developed by using dynamic mass redistribution (DMR) assay based on label-free optical biosensor. The addition of urotensin II (UII) stimulated a DMR profile to HEK293 cells stably expressing the human UT receptor (HEK293UT cells) but not on parental cells. The EC50 value of UII in label-free assay was 4.58 nM, which is very similar to that in conventional calcium mobilization assay (4.15 nM). Compared with the calcium mobilization assay for UII (Z' factor, 0.77), the current label-free assay presented improved Z' factor (0.81), with a relatively similar S/B ratio (28.0 and 25.6, respectively). The known high-affinity UT receptor antagonists, SB657510, GSK562590, and urantide, exhibited comparable IC50 values but rather less potent in the DMR assay than in calcium mobilization. Our DMR assay was able to present various functional responses, including inverse agonism in SB657510 and GSK1562590 as well as partial agonism in urantide. Moreover, the DMR assay exerted the stable antagonist window upon the minimal agonist stimulus. These results suggest that the label-free cell-based UT receptor assay can be applicable to evaluate the various functional activities of UT receptor-related drug candidates.