Abstract
The Rapid Assessment of Compound Exposure (RACE) assay is an easy and efficient method for estimating the pharmacokinetic parameter of exposure (AUC: area under the curve) of novel chemical probe compounds in mice. RACE is a truncated and compressed version of a traditional comprehensive in vivo pharmacokinetics study. The method uses a single standard formulation, dose, route of administration, and a small cohort of mice (n = 4). Standardized protocols and an abbreviated sample collection scheme reduce the labor needed to perform both the in-life and bioanalytical phases of the study. The procedure reduces the complexity of data analysis by eliminating all but one calculated pharmacokinetic parameter; estimated exposure (eAUC20-120), a parameter that is sufficient to rank order compounds based on exposure, but is also easily determined by most software using the simple trapezoidal rule. The RACE assay protocol is readily applicable to early/exploratory studies of most compounds, and is intended to be employed by laboratories with limited expertise in pharmacology and pharmacokinetics. Curr. Protoc. Chem. Biol. 4:299-309 © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.