Electrical capacitance-based cancer cell viability monitoring device for accelerated drug development

Abstract

Cell-based assays are important for drug development. Among these, the cell viability assay damages the cells due to the use of toxic reagents, is time-consuming, and has multi-step protocols requiring technical expertise. In this study, a rapid capacitance-based electrical drug monitoring system that can replace existing cell viability assays is presented. This system evaluates the anticancer effects of a doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded aptamer on SK-BR-3 cells (HER2 positive) grown on a cell chip. DOX was loaded into the GC-rich region of the HApt-ATP aptamer, which reduced the toxic effect on normal cells by increasing the targeting rate for HER2-positive cancer cells and enabling the selective release of DOX due to intracellular ATP. The capacitance of the cells grown on the cell chip was measured within 10 sec in 1X phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). The capacitance of SK-BR-3 cells decreased with increasing DOX concentration loaded into HApt-ATP aptamer (DHA) and showed cell viability similar to the WST assay in a narrow drug concentration range of 0–2 μM. Additionally, SK-BR-3 cells showed the lowest cell viability and the highest anticancer effect. This device is simple and accurate in vitro, easy to operate, and can be used to accelerate drug development.