NeuroLight Red™ and NeuroPrime™ Cell Kit: New Products for Monitoring Neurite Outgrowth, Kinetically, in Mixed-Culture Assays

Essen BioScience, makers of the IncuCyte ZOOM™ live-cell imaging system, has released two novel products which enable neurite outgrowth studies in mixed-culture assays to be performed kinetically.

NeuroLight Red (Cat No 4584) is a lentiviral based live-cell neuronal labeling reagent driven by a synapsin promoter, resulting in the long term expression of red fluorescent protein (mKate2) in neuronal cell bodies and neurites. NeuroLight Red™ ensures highly-efficient, yet non-disruptive labeling of primary or iPSC-derived neurons over days and weeks, and enables the kinetic quantification of neurite length and branching in the presence of astrocytes and other non-neuronal cell types such as microglia.

NeuroLight Red is also a component of Essen’s NeuroPrime™ Cell Kit (Cat No 4585), the first commercially available, turnkey cryopreserved neuronal/astrocyte co-culture kit. Each cell kit contains cryopreserved cell vials of rat forebrain neurons and rat astrocytes, and a vial of the NeuroLight Red™ labeling reagent. A fully validated protocol for thawing, labeling and measuring neurite dynamics for up to 2 weeks in a 96-well format using IncuCyte ZOOM™ is also included. Assay kits are lot controlled and validated for optimal labeling and assay performance when used according to the protocol supplied and with the NeuroTrack™ Software Module on the IncuCyte ZOOM system.

Key Features of NeuroPrime Cell Kit
• Cryopreserved vials of forebrain neurons and astrocytes isolated from early embryonic stage (E18) Sprague-Dawley rats (1x vial of each, 2x106 cells/vial)
• NeuroLight™ Red Lentivirus reagent, expressing the red fluorescent protein mKate2 under control of a synapsin promoter (1x vial, 0.45 mL)
• Minimal expression of fluorescence in non-neuronal cell types
• NeuroLight Red reagent is non-perturbing to neuronal biology
• Validated protocol for optimal neuron labeling and assay performance in 96-well plates
• Ideal for studies of neurotoxicity or general biology of established neural networks
• Create time-lapse movies of neurite outgrowth utilizing Essen’s IncuCyte ZOOM and NeuroTrack software module

Applications
• Pharmacology and Toxicology: quantitation of time-dependent responses in neurite outgrowth to small molecules, growth factors, antibodies and other biologics
• Signaling Pathways: study target ID using siRNA, miRNA and/or gene editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9
• Precision Medicine: development of phenotypic assays for patient-derived iPSC neurons