Targeting pro-inflammatory cytokines for COVID-19 therapy: Qualified cell-based assays for accelerated drug discovery

Manisha Pratap, Technical Writer, Eurofins Discovery, ManishaPratap@eurofinsUS.com

The COVID-19 pandemic has left the world racing against time for remediation. As a result, there have been hundreds of therapeutic strategies have emerged globally in the last several months. Among several noteworthy approaches is the targeting of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL-1, TNFα, GM-CSF, etc. An uncontrolled and dysfunctional release of these cytokines after viral infection causes cytokine release syndrome, a condition linked to mortality in COVID-19 patients. Therefore, several new and existing drugs targeting these cytokines are in development for COVID-19 treatment. However, this requires robust cellbased bioassays that can accelerate the development and market-release of such therapeutics, but such assays have repeatedly proven to be challenging to develop. From cell line development and characterisation to assay qualification and implementation, the process of assay development can take anywhere from nine months to over a year, thus impacting the timeline of a drug’s release into the market. To address these challenges, Eurofins DiscoverX offers a comprehensive menu of ready-to-use, qualified bioassays for drugs targeting the key cytokines. Each of these bioassays reflects the drug’s mechanism of action and is qualified with specific innovator drugs, e.g. tocilizumab (Actemra®), anakinra (Kineret®), and adalimumab (Humira®), among others. During qualification, each bioassay is rigorously tested to ascertain a high degree of assay accuracy, precision, linearity, and reproducibility to ensure these are fit-for-purpose for potency and stability testing. Thus, such qualified bioassays that would otherwise take over a year to develop are readily available for implementation in drug development programmes.

Through its expertise in cell-based assays, Eurofins DiscoverX strives to help companies bring effective therapeutics to the market faster than ever before with confidence. Learn more about assays for COVID-19 drug discovery at www.discoverx.com/covid-19.