One hour In Vivo-like phenotypic screening system for anti-cancer drugs using a high precision surface plasmon resonance device

In anti-cancer drug (candidate) screening, there is the need for evaluation at physiological concentrations similar to in vivo. This is often performed by three-dimensionally (3D) cultured cells; however, it requires a long culture period of 2 - 4 weeks with tedious experimental procedures. Here, we report on a high precision surface plasmon resonance (HPSPR)- 3D system. We developed the system with average fluctuation of 50 ndeg s-1 using two-dimensionally cultured cells attached onto a sensor chip by applying collagen on the top to change their activity into in vivo-like conditions without cell division. It allowed in vivo-like phenotypic screening for anti-cancer drugs within 1 h of drug addition. The data were collected as the stable linear signal change parts for at least 5 min after 25 min following drug addition. The results provided compatibility to clinically related chemosensitivity test for anti-cancer (P < 0.001) using two cell lines of pancreatic cancer and three anti-cancer drugs to represent differences in individual gene expression and drug mode of action.