Chisso begins selling luminescent substrate Coelenterazine

 

Chisso Corporation (President: Shunichi Okada, Head office: Otemachi, Chiyoda-ward, Tokyo) has succeed in the research and synthesis of a "highly pure Coelenterazine" which acts as a luminescent substrate (Luciferin) for luciferases in various marine luminescent animals, and has commenced trade as of December 2007.

In recent years, research and development into the field of drug screening, especially bioluminescence screening using various luminescent enzymes, has been highly popular due to their high detection sensitivity. Chisso currently markets a calcium-binding photoprotein "Aequorin" which emits blue light when it binds to calcium ions. The source of light in this photoprotein is the luminescent substrate �gCoelenterazine�h which is an organic compound with a low molecular weight that was isolated from the liver of firefly squids.

Chisso has designed and implemented a synthetic manufacturing process for coelenterazine and its derivatives and can now provide a stable supply to its customers.

Conventionally, coelenterazine is sold in small sizes, however, due to the recent development by Chisso in synthesizing coelenterazine and its derivatives, Chisso can now supply them to each customer as follows:

- measurement of the change in intracellular calcium ion concentration using aequorin expressed in cultured cells

- real-time imaging of luminescent enzymes

- whole body imaging in a mouse

These can all be offered at an affordable price with batch orders permitted up to a maximum weight of 100mg.

 

After a trial marketing period of one year, Chisso's high-purity coelenterazine has been proven to be useful in the development of drugs in pharmaceutical companies, and in the real-time imaging of cultured cells as published in the biochemical journal, FEBS Letters (October 2).

 

In the future, Chisso aims to promote chemical screening using aequorin and various other luminescent enzymes.