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A microfluidic platform for drug screening in a 3D cancer microenvironment
Hardik J Pandya1, Karan Dhingra1, Devbalaji Prabhakar1
1Division of Engineering in Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital - Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Biosensors & Bioelectronics
|April 4, 2017
Summary
A novel 3D microfluidic platform rapidly analyzes cancer cell drug response in under 12 hours. This technology aids in quickly identifying effective chemotherapy treatments, overcoming drug resistance challenges in cancer care.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Cancer Research
- Microfluidics
Background:
- Chemotherapy resistance is a major obstacle in cancer treatment.
- Current methods for evaluating drug efficacy are time-consuming, taking weeks to months.
- A rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective diagnostic assay is needed to personalize cancer therapy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a 3D microfluidic platform for real-time analysis of chemotherapeutic drug efficacy.
- To assess the platform's ability to differentiate between drug-susceptible, drug-tolerant, and drug-resistant cancer cells.
- To significantly reduce the time required for evaluating patient response to cancer drugs.
Main Methods:
- A 3D microfluidic platform (66mm×50mm) integrated with interdigitated gold microsensors (10µm width/spacing).
- Culturing cancer cells (B16-F10 melanoma, 4T1 breast cancer, DU 145 prostate cancer) within a 3D extracellular matrix.
- Measuring changes in electrical impedance of cancer cells upon exposure to chemotherapeutic drugs over 12 hours.
Main Results:
- The platform successfully delineated drug-susceptible, drug-tolerant, and drug-resistant cancer cells in less than 12 hours.
- Significant differences in impedance magnitude changes were observed between susceptible and resistant cells across different cancer models.
- Demonstrated impedance changes for breast cancer: 50,552±144 Ω (susceptible) vs. 28,786±233 Ω (tolerant); melanoma: 40,197±222 Ω (susceptible) vs. 4069±79 Ω (resistant); prostate cancer: 8971±1515 Ω (susceptible) vs. 3281±429 Ω (resistant).
Conclusions:
- The developed 3D microfluidic platform offers a rapid and sensitive method for evaluating chemotherapeutic drug effectiveness.
- This technology has the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment management by enabling faster therapeutic decisions.
- The platform provides a powerful tool for personalized medicine by quickly assessing individual patient tumor responses to various drugs.