Abstract. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers have been extensively utilized in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and characterization of progression. One important CSF biomarker is the amyloid beta 42 (Aβ 42 ) peptide, a key player in AD pathogenesis. The INNOTEST® Aβ 42 ELISA kit has been widely used but an advanced level of method development and validation has not been reported. To support a clinical trial in AD, we successfully completed a Good Laboratory Practices (GLP)-level validation of the method to establish the parameters of precision, accuracy, parallelism, selectivity, specificity, and linearity of dilution of the assay in CSF matrix, as well as CSF storage stability. Several modifications were required to optimize the assay and ensure consistent results in a clinical-trial setting. These included the use of additional calibrators, an adjusted standard curve range, a minimum required dilution (MRD) of CSF by 6-fold to avoid matrix interference and mitigation of analyte adsorption to labware by the addition of Tween-20. The optimized method displayed a quantitative range of 375-4,500 pg/mL. The inter-assay precision was ≤12.1 % CV and the inter-assay relative accuracy was ≤10.9 % absolute bias, bringing the total error of the assay to ≤23 %. The intra-assay precision of the assay at the high validation standard and below was ≤5.5 % CV; this enables sensitive detection of biomarker changes across a therapeutic regime. The INNOTEST® Aβ 42 ELISA kit, modified as reported here, may be appropriate for many applications, including regulatory agency acceptable clinical diagnosis and pharmacodynamic assessment.

The 8th GCC Closed Forum for Bioanalysis was held in Baltimore, MD, USA on 5 December 2013, immediately following the 2013 AAPS Workshop (Crystal City V): Quantitative Bioanalytical Methods Validation and Implementation--The 2013 Revised FDA Guidance. This GCC meeting was organized to discuss the contents of the draft revised FDA Guidance on bioanalytical method validation that was published in September 2013 and consolidate the feedback of the GCC members. In attendance were 63 senior-level participants, from seven countries, representing 46 bioanalytical CRO companies/sites. This event represented a unique opportunity for CRO bioanalytical experts to share their opinions and concerns regarding the draft FDA Guidance, and to build unified comments to be provided to the FDA.

Experiments were carried out on Sprague-Dawley rats to determine whether changes in fetal corticosterone levels during maternal diabetes were caused by the accompanying fetal hyperinsulinaemia or fetal hyperglycaemia. Diabetes was induced by injecting streptozotocin (30-45 mg/kg, i.v.) on day 2 of gestation. Fetal adrenals were removed on day 20 of gestation and cultured. Streptozotocin caused moderate (blood glucose 14-22.5 mmol/l) to severe (blood glucose greater than 25 mmol/l) diabetes. Both moderate and severe diabetes caused a decrease in fetal body weights. Relative to non-diabetic controls, maternal and fetal plasma concentrations of corticosterone were higher in the severely and lower in the moderately diabetic rats. Corticosterone production by fetal adrenal cells from control and moderately diabetic rats was comparable, but cells from the severely diabetic animals produced significantly greater amounts of corticosterone than did control cells. Neither glucose (28 mmol/l) nor insulin (1 nmol/l) exerted significant effects on [3H]thymidine uptake or corticosterone production by fetal adrenal cells from non-diabetic, moderately diabetic or severely diabetic rats. Human ACTH (0.02-20 nmol/l) caused a concentration-dependent increase in corticosterone output of comparable magnitude by cells from all three groups of animals. These data suggest that fetal growth abnormalities during diabetic pregnancy are not directly related to changes in glucocorticoid levels and that changes in glucocorticoid levels are not caused by any direct action of fetal hyperinsulinaemia or hyperglycaemia on adrenal cells.

Cathepsin L is a major lysosomal cysteine protease produced by mouse placenta and fibroblasts. This study characterizes a novel cathepsin L-related mRNA expressed in rat placenta. Immunological and nucleotide screening of a rat placenta library identified six positive clones, the largest, pCLRP-9, being 924 base pairs in length. The combined sequences of all the clones contain an open reading frame of 711 nucleotides, a termination codon, a polyadenylation site, and 197 nucleotides of 3' untranslated region, but lack the 5' translation initiation codon. The pCLRP nucleotide sequence showed 60-64% identity to those of mouse, rat, and human cathepsin L. The deduced amino acid sequence of pCLRP codes for 237 amino acids, which align with the carboxy-terminal sequence of cathepsin L and has the active site residues characteristic of the cysteine protease family. Northern blot analysis showed hybridization of pCLRP with a major mRNA transcript of 1.3 kilobases expressed in placenta, but not kidney or liver. In contrast, a cDNA for mouse pro-cathepsin L hybridized with a transcript of 1.7 kilobases expressed in rat kidney, as well as placenta. During late gestation, steady-state levels of rat placental pCLRP mRNA were highest on day 18, whereas those of mouse procathepsin L were greatest on day 20 of gestation. Antiserum to mouse cathepsin L cross-reacted with four proteins of molecular weights 36,000 to 42,000 in rat placental culture medium, of which two were absent in the kidney. These data indicate that rat placenta expresses several species of cathepsin L-type proteins, which may be involved in placental function and nutrient supply.

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