hERG Screening Services

SparkMind provides hERG screening services based on patch clamp electrophysiology to support early-stage cardiac safety assessment in drug discovery. A standard workflow is outlined below:

Sample Preparation
➔
Sample Receipt & Registration
➔
Patch Clamp Recording (hERG Currents)
➔
Data Analysis & Interpretation
➔
Report Delivery

The Importance of Early hERG Screening in Drug Discovery

The rapidly activating delayed rectifier potassium current (IKr) plays a critical role in maintaining cardiomyocyte action potential duration (APD) and is closely associated with the QT interval on the electrocardiogram. Prolongation of the corrected QT interval beyond 440 ms significantly increases the risk of Torsades de Pointes (TdP), which may further progress to ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death.
Historically, multiple marketed drugs have been withdrawn due to QT prolongation or TdP liability. Many of these compounds were later shown to inhibit the human ether-à-go-go-related gene (hERG) potassium channel, which forms the pore-forming subunit of IKr.
To address this safety concern, the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) issued the S7B and E14 guidelines in 2005, establishing hERG inhibition and QT interval prolongation as surrogate markers for proarrhythmic risk. This strategy has proven effective in preventing high-risk compounds from advancing, highlighting the value of early hERG screening in drug discovery.

High-Quality Manual Patch Clamp Screening Platforms

Although early-stage hERG screening is not required to be conducted under GLP conditions, the use of optimized electrophysiological systems remains critical for accurate determination of compound half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC₅₀). High-quality screening platforms ensure reliable potency assessment while balancing throughput, cost, and timelines.
SparkMind provides non-GLP hERG screening services tailored to the needs of discovery-stage research programs.

Representative hERG-positive compound results

Limitations of Automated Patch Clamp: Not a Universal Replacement

While automated patch clamp systems offer advantages in throughput and standardization, several limitations remain:

Limited data precision: Lower seal resistance and variable whole-cell access success rates.
Restricted protocol flexibility: Difficulties in implementing complex voltage or perfusion protocols.
High cell quality requirements: Strict demands on cell suspension uniformity and viability.
Lack of visual control: No real-time monitoring of cell morphology or seal formation.
Reduced sensitivity for low-expression channels: Limited detection of small current amplitudes.
Instability during long recordings: Rapid seal degradation affecting chronic or stability assessments.

As a result, conventional manual patch clamp remains indispensable for critical safety evaluations such as hERG screening, detailed kinetic analyses, and exploratory mechanism studies.

Gold-Standard Manual Patch Clamp for Accurate Assessment

For projects requiring higher accuracy and sensitivity, we offer hERG screening services based on conventional manual patch clamp techniques, supporting both single-point and dose–response studies. Please contact us for further discussion.

hERG Screening