Pathway Kinetics

Kinemed's platform utilizes stable isotopes, which are chemical variants of elements that differ in the number of neutrons and therefore in atomic weight from their more abundant forms. For example, deuterium is a stable isotope of hydrogen and has an atomic weight of 2 compared to 1 for hydrogen. Deuterated water (D2O, also called "heavy water") therefore weighs 20 daltons compared to 18 daltons for H2O. Deuterium is stable, and unlike radioactive isotopes, does not decay and give rise to dangerous radiation. Stable isotopes can therefore it can be administered safely to animals and humans.

To measure pathway kinetics, KineMed administers compounds containing stable isotopes to animals and human subjects. The isotopes become widely distributed in the body and are incorporated into biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, proteins and fat, which can be detected based on differences in molecular weight using mass spectroscopic methods developed by KineMed. From these measurements, KineMed determines the rates of various metabolic processes central to health, disease and drug action.

Some of the processes that KineMed quantitatively measures using this method are rates of cell division, collagen deposition and degradation, reverse cholesterol transport, the production of new storage fats and fat cells, the rate of glucose utilization, neurogenesis, synaptogenesis and neuronal axonal transport.