For the past decade, ImQuest has been at the forefront of topical microbicide development and discovery research. Our programs assess the activity of agents, defines the mechanism of action of potential microbicides, and quantifies the toxicity of a potential microbicide against cells, tissues and organisms relevant to microbicide product use.

STI Relevant Organisms

• HIV
• HSV-1
• HSV-2
• HPV
• Hepatitis viruses
• Neisseria gonorrhoeae
• Chlamydia trachomatis
• Trichomonas vaginalis
• Candida albicans
• Gardnerella vaginalis

Our services are available for the evaluation of small molecules, natural products, immune modulators, biologics and therapeutic antibodies and provide necessary support from initial discovery, structure-activity relationship evaluation, lead identification and IND-directed preclinical development.

Don’t see the assay you are looking for?  Contact our technical team.  We would be happy to perform a feasibility review and we can explore assay transfer or internalization from a pre-developed or published method.

Quantification of Anti-Viral Activity and Cellular Toxicity

• Evaluation of antiviral activity using well-characterized laboratory strains of virus
• Evaluation against geographically diverse strains where applicable
• Evaluation of antiviral activity in relevant primary cells and tissues

• Antiviral activity across a range of viral multiplicities of infection
• Antiviral activity following pH transition from pH 4 to pH 7
• Protection against infection by cell-free and cell-associated HIV-1 virus
• Antiviral activity in the presence of whole semen, seminal plasma, cervicovaginal lavage fluid and mucin
• Virucidal activity evaluations for agents which inactivate infectious virus
• Evaluation of virus sterilization using the Microbicide Transmission and Sterilization Assay (MTSA)

Determination of Mechanism of Action

• Inhibition of virus entry to include attachment, fusion and entry through co-receptors
• Direct virus inactivation (virucidal activity)
• Biochemical activity assays

Selection and Characterization of Resistant Virus

• Assess the susceptibility of approved drugs to microbicide-resistant HIV variants
• Assess the susceptibility of the microbicide to variants resistant to approved antiretroviral drugs
• Perform resistant virus selection on microbicide candidates to assess the relative ease of resistant virus selection as well as the genotype and fitness of resistant viruses that emerge during selection

Toxicity to Normal Human Vaginal Microflora and Other Relevant Cell Types

• Cervical, vaginal and rectal specific cell lines
• Epivaginal tissue
• Normal vaginal flora, Lactobacillus including static and cidal activity