title: FLIPR assays of intracellular calcium in GPCR drug discovery.
abstract: Fluorescent dyes sensitive to changes in intracellular calcium have become increasingly popular in G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) drug discovery for several reasons. First of all, the assays using the dyes are easy to perform and are of low cost compared to other assays. Second, most non-Galpha(q)-coupled GPCRs can be tweaked to modulate intracellular calcium by co-transfection with promiscuous or chimeric/mutated G proteins making the calcium assays broadly applicable in GPCR research. Third, the price of instruments capable of measuring fluorescent-based calcium indicators has become significantly less making them obtainable even for academic groups. Here, we present a protocol for measuring changes in intracellular calcium levels in living mammalian cells based on the fluorescent calcium binding dye, fluo-4.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Kasper B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bräuner-Osborne
mesh_terms: D000814:Aniline Compounds; D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D016466:CHO Cells; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D055808:Drug Discovery; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000378:metabolism*; D014966:Xanthenes
chemical_list: D000814:Aniline Compounds; C409648:Fluo 4; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled; D014966:Xanthenes; D002118:Calcium