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Updated: May 17, 2026
Quantitative Mass Spectrometric Profiling of Cancer-cell Proteomes Derived From Liquid and Solid Tumors
Published on: February 27, 2015
Rapidly quantifying drug sensitivity of dispersed and clumped breast cancer cells by mass profiling
Jennifer Chun1, Thomas A Zangle, Theodora Kolarova
1Bioengineering Interdepartmental Program, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Abstract:
Live cell mass profiling is a promising new approach for rapidly quantifying responses to therapeutic agents through picogram-scale changes in cell mass over time. A significant barrier in mass profiling is the inability of existing methods to handle pleomorphic cellular clusters and clumps, which are more commonly present in patient-derived samples or tissue cultures than are isolated single cells. Here we demonstrate automated Live Cell Interferometry (LCI) as a rapid and accurate quantifier of the sensitivity of single cell and colony-forming human breast cancer cell lines to the HER2-directed monoclonal antibody, trastuzumab (Herceptin). The relative sensitivities of small samples (<500 cells) of four breast cancer cell lines were determined tens-to-hundreds of times faster than is possible with traditional proliferation assays. These LCI advances in clustered sample assessment and speed open up the possibility for therapeutic response testing of patient-derived solid tumor samples, which are viable only for short periods ex vivo and likely to be in the form of cell aggregates and clusters.
Insights
Automated Live Cell Interferometry (LCI) rapidly quantifies cancer cell sensitivity to therapies, even in cell clusters. This breakthrough enables faster drug response testing for patient-derived tumor samples.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Cell Biology
- Cancer Research
Background:
- Live cell mass profiling offers rapid quantification of cellular responses to therapeutics by measuring minute changes in cell mass.
- Existing mass profiling methods struggle with pleomorphic cellular clusters common in patient-derived samples.
- There is a need for faster, more accurate methods to assess drug sensitivity in complex cell populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate automated Live Cell Interferometry (LCI) as a rapid and accurate method for quantifying drug sensitivity.
- To assess the sensitivity of human breast cancer cell lines to trastuzumab using LCI.
- To evaluate LCI's capability in handling clustered and single-cell samples.
Main Methods:
- Development and application of automated Live Cell Interferometry (LCI).
- Testing of four human breast cancer cell lines, including single cells and colony-forming clusters.
- Quantification of cellular response to the HER2-directed antibody, trastuzumab (Herceptin).
Main Results:
- LCI accurately quantified the sensitivity of breast cancer cell lines to trastuzumab.
- Relative sensitivities of small cell samples (<500 cells) were determined significantly faster than traditional assays.
- LCI demonstrated efficacy in assessing both single cells and clustered cell populations.
Conclusions:
- Automated LCI provides a rapid and accurate method for assessing therapeutic agent sensitivity.
- LCI overcomes limitations of existing methods by effectively analyzing clustered cells.
- This technology holds promise for expedited therapeutic response testing of patient-derived solid tumor samples.
