High-throughput electrochemical sensing platform for screening nanomaterial-biomembrane interactions

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Nanotoxicology

Background:

• Assessing nanomaterial-induced biological membrane damage is crucial for safety.
• Existing methods can be time-consuming and require specialized expertise.
• A need exists for rapid, high-throughput screening platforms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a high-throughput, automated screening platform for detecting biological membrane damage.
• To assess the interaction of biomembrane-active species with phospholipid monolayers using electrochemistry.
• To demonstrate the platform's utility with a pharmaceutical and a nanomaterial.

Main Methods:

• Development of a microfluidic flow cell integrating a microfabricated electrode with a mercury film.
• Utilizing rapid cyclic voltammetry to measure capacitance-current peak changes in a phospholipid monolayer.
• Automated fluid control for precise delivery and interaction analysis.

Main Results:

• The platform successfully detected interactions of chlorpromazine and gold nanomaterials (AuNM) with a DOPC monolayer at >1 µmol dm-3.
• Electrochemical findings for chlorpromazine correlated with HepG2 and A549 cytotoxicity assays, confirming biological validity.
• Screening achieved high-throughput performance, with membrane interactions detected in <6 minutes per assay.

Conclusions:

• The developed automated platform offers a rapid and efficient method for assessing nanomaterial-induced membrane damage.
• This technology enhances the usability and accessibility of electrochemical techniques for nanotoxicology screening.
• The platform demonstrates significant potential for improving the safety evaluation of biomembrane-active compounds and nanomaterials.