Will planar bioassays replace the prevalent in vitro assays?

Genotoxins were found in healthy oils [1]. The question arises why this has been overlooked so far, and the validity and efficacy of current analytical tools is being questioned. The power of the hyphenated planar screening strategy is highlighted, which first discovered and visualized the genotoxins. Will planar bioassays, which provide meaningful effect profiles and prioritize the most important compounds, replace the prevailing in vitro assays providing only a sum value and thus wrong results?

Combining two different disciplines (chemistry, i.e. planar chromatographic separation, and biology, i.e. toxicological detection) on the same surface yields meaningful and true results, if compared to the status quo [2] [3]. First by this combination, the differentiation of opposing effects/responses is possible and important effects are not overlooked. Also metabolic processes (e.g., detoxification/toxification in the liver) can be simulated and studied on the planar surface [1].

This urgently calls for an analytical paradigm shift toward non-target planar profiling that can detect genotoxins and does not overlook these. To spread the powerful hyphenated technique, a miniaturized open-source 2LabsToGo system was recently demonstrated [4].

Publication History

Article published online:
14 June 2023

• References

• 1 Morlock GE, Meyer D.. Food Chem 2023; 408: 135253
• 2 Morlock GE.. Phytochem Rev 2023;
• 3 Morlock GE.. Anal Chim Acta 2021; 1180: 338644
• 4 Sing L. et al. Anal Chem 2022; 94: 14554-14564