RESUMO
ABSTRACT: Facial grimacing is used to quantify spontaneous pain in mice and other mammals, but scoring relies on humans with different levels of proficiency. Here, we developed a cloud-based software platform called PainFace (http://painface.net) that uses machine learning to detect 4 facial action units of the mouse grimace scale (orbitals, nose, ears, whiskers) and score facial grimaces of black-coated C57BL/6 male and female mice on a 0 to 8 scale. Platform accuracy was validated in 2 different laboratories, with 3 conditions that evoke grimacing-laparotomy surgery, bilateral hindpaw injection of carrageenan, and intraplantar injection of formalin. PainFace can generate up to 1 grimace score per second from a standard 30 frames/s video, making it possible to quantify facial grimacing over time, and operates at a speed that scales with computing power. By analyzing the frequency distribution of grimace scores, we found that mice spent 7x more time in a "high grimace" state following laparotomy surgery relative to sham surgery controls. Our study shows that PainFace reproducibly quantifies facial grimaces indicative of nonevoked spontaneous pain and enables laboratories to standardize and scale-up facial grimace analyses.
RESUMO
The secretory and transmembrane isoforms of prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) can dephosphorylate extracellular adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) to adenosine, classifying PAP as an ectonucleotidase. Currently, there are no compounds that inhibit PAP in living cells. To identify small-molecule modulators of PAP, we used a 1536-well-based quantitative high-throughput fluorogenic assay to screen the Library of Pharmacologically Active Compounds (LOPAC(1280)) arrayed as eight-concentration dilution series. This fluorogenic assay used difluoro-4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate as substrate and collected data in kinetic mode. Candidate hits were subsequently tested in an orthogonal absorbance-based biochemical assay that used AMP as substrate. From these initial screens, three inhibitors of secretory human (h) and mouse (m)PAP were identified: 8-(4-chlorophenylthio) cAMP (pCPT-cAMP), calmidazolium chloride, and nalidixic acid. These compounds did not inhibit recombinant alkaline phosphatase. Of these compounds, only pCPT-cAMP and a related cyclic nucleotide analog (8-[4-chlorophenylthio] cGMP; pCPT-cGMP) inhibited the ectonucleotidase activity of transmembrane PAP in a cell-based assay. These cyclic nucleotides are structurally similar to AMP but cannot be hydrolyzed by PAP. In summary, we identified two cyclic nucleotide analogs that inhibit secretory and transmembrane PAP in vitro and in live cells.