Electrophysiological assays using oocytes that express human ENaC and the use of phenamil to improve the effect of ENaC enhancers in assays using membrane potential reporting dyes

摘要

In one aspect, the present invention relates to a mammalian cell-based high-throughput assay for the profiling and screening of human epithelial sodium channel (hENaC) cloned from a human kidney c-DNA library and is also expressed in other tissues including human taste tissue. The present invention further relates to amphibian oocyte-based medium-throughput electrophysiological assays for identifying human ENaC modulators, preferably ENaC enhancers. Compounds that modulate ENaC function in a cell-based ENaC assay are expected to affect salty taste in humans.