Until Labs reports a cell-based test of an ice-free cooling mixture
Until Labs reports a cell-based test of an ice-free cooling mixture
On 1 September, the company published a report on its CPA-1042 mixture. In a human vascular cell model at the concentration required for vitrification, relative cell viability was about 85%, compared with about 50% for the standard VMP formulation.
Vitrification turns a solution into a glass-like state without forming ice crystals that rupture cells. Before cooling, cryoprotectants are introduced into the tissue to protect it from freezing. At high concentrations, these substances can dehydrate cells and disrupt protein function and metabolism.
This chemical problem had already helped determine the outcome of a 2023 experiment involving rat kidneys. The researchers chose VMP instead of the more toxic VS55, vitrified the kidneys, stored them for up to 100 days, rewarmed them using magnetic nanoparticles, and transplanted them into male rats whose own kidneys had been removed. The transplanted organs restored kidney function. Selecting the better-tolerated formulation was one of the conditions that made this result possible.
Until searches for suitable formulations in stages. The company models how more than 250 thousand molecules interact with water. It then tests in the laboratory whether a solution vitrifies, whether each substance crosses the cell membrane, and whether cells tolerate it. According to Until, the company has already tested 7 684 new substances and conducted more than 10 thousand cell-based tests of 2 903 formulations in the second quarter.
CPA-1042 contains four components. In Until’s first graph, most individual components, when used at their own vitrification concentrations, left about half of the cells viable or fewer. Lower doses of these components produced the same total concentration when combined in the mixture. In a separate comparison using human vascular cells, CPA-1042 produced about 85% relative viability, compared with approximately 50% for VMP.
“When no single molecule has to provide the entire protective dose, that dose can be distributed across components and mechanisms so that no toxicity pathway overwhelms the cell,” Until explains.
The next test must use a whole organ. The formulation must spread through the vascular network, enter the cells, withstand vitrification and rewarming, and then leave the tissue. The cell-based screen selects mixtures for this experiment.