PNS Toxicity

Predict peripheral neuropathy risk by measuring drug-induced changes in human peripheral nerve conduction and structure. PNS-2D supports scalable cell-specific toxicity profiling, while PNS-3D provides longitudinal functional assessment to inform candidate rank ordering.
Drug-induced peripheral neuropathy is a prevalent, dose-limiting complication of chemotherapy, affecting up to 70% of patients within the first month and forcing 17% to reduce or discontinue treatment due to severe symptoms. The risk remains difficult to predict preclinically because conventional models often fail to capture the human peripheral nerve biology that drives neuropathy, including functional disruption that can emerge before overt structural damage or cell loss.

PNS-2D and PNS-3D address this translational gap by measuring drug-induced changes in human peripheral nerve structure and function. Built with human sensory neurons and Schwann cells, these complementary models pair morphology and electrophysiology endpoints to support confident peripheral neuropathy risk prediction—before humans are dosed.

Human PNS Biology

Assess toxicity in human sensory neuron–Schwann cell models built to reflect peripheral nerve biology.

Cell-Specific Toxicity

Distinguish neuron-targeted, Schwann-targeted, and dual-cell toxicity profiles in co-culture.

Structural + Functional Endpoints

Measure morphology and electrophysiology to detect both nerve structure and function changes.

Flexible Study Options

Complementary models for rapid rank ordering and longitudinal functional assessment of drug candidates.
Use Case

2D Peripheral Neuropathy

Scalable Screening For Peripheral Safety Rank Ordering
PNS-2D enables rapid assessment of peripheral neurotoxicity in a 96-well co-culture of human sensory neurons and Schwann cells. Morphological analysis quantifies dose-dependent changes in neuron health, neurite networks, and Schwann cell morphology, helping teams distinguish neuron-targeted, Schwann-targeted, and dual-cell toxicity profiles. This cell-specific analysis supports faster compound comparison, toxicity rank ordering, and candidate prioritization.
PNS-2D distinguishes negative control, neuron-targeted, Schwann-targeted, and dual-cell toxicity profiles in a scalable human sensory neuron–Schwann cell co-culture.
Use Case

3D Peripheral Neuropathy

Longitudinal nerve function and morphology assessment
PNS-3D enables sensitive assessment of peripheral neurotoxicity using human sensory neurons and Schwann cells that form myelinated nerve fibers in 24-well embedded electrode array plates. Longitudinal electrophysiology and morphology endpoints track how nerve function and structure change over a 7-day+ dosing period, providing a time- and dose-dependent view of toxicity development.

For neuropathy-prone modalities such as chemotherapies and ADCs, PNS-3D can help detect functional disruption before overt morphological damage and inform safer candidate selection.
PNS-3D detects functional decline at lower doses than morphological decline, providing more sensitive detection of peripheral nerve damage.

PNS Toxicity Resources

Explore resources for studying peripheral nerve toxicity.

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