A colorimetric assay developed for the evaluation of tumor cell-platelet interaction and drug intervention

Tumor cell-platelet interaction is a critical pathway for promoting hematogenous metastasis by enhancing the survival rate of tumor cells. To establish a quantitative platform for evaluating cell interaction dynamics and drug interventions, we developed a novel porphyrin-based colorimetric system for real-time monitoring of tumor cell-platelet binding events. This detection system demonstrates excellent analytical performance, with a linear response range of 5.0 × 10³ - 1.0 × 10⁶ platelets and a limit of detection of 5.0 × 10³ platelets. A comprehensive evaluation of lung adenocarcinoma cell lines revealed distinct platelet-binding capacities, with PC9R exhibiting the strongest platelet-binding ability, followed by A549, and PC9 showing the weakest ability. Moreover, we investigated the intervention of drugs and found that aspirin pretreatment could significantly reduce platelet binding in three cell lines. Among them, the inhibition of PC9R was most pronounced, followed by A549, and the weakest effect in PC9. The results indicate that drug pretreatment can significantly inhibit platelet binding in cell lines, and the inhibitory effect is positively correlated with platelet binding capacity-cells with stronger binding affinity show greater sensitivity to drug interventions. This study holds promise for analyzing the interaction between platelets and other cells, and may provide a basis for personalized selection of aspirin interventions.