Aqueous biphasic cancer cell migration assay enables robust, high-throughput screening of anti-cancer compounds

Abstract

Migration of tumor cells is a fundamental event implicated in metastatic progression of cancer. Therapeutic compounds with the ability to inhibit the motility of cancer cells are critical for preventing cancer metastasis. Achieving this goal requires new technologies that enable high-throughput drug screening against migration of cancer cells and expedite drug discovery. We report an easy-to-implement, robotically operated, cell migration microtechnology with the capability of simultaneous screening of multiple compounds. The technology utilizes a fully biocompatible polymeric aqueous two-phase system to pattern a monolayer of cells containing a cell-excluded gap that serves as the migration niche. We adapted this technology to a standard 96-well plate format and parametrically optimized it to generate highly consistent migration niches. The analysis of migration is done automatically using computerized schemes. We use statistical metrics and show the robustness of this assay for drug screening and its sensitivity to identify effects of different drug compounds on migration of cancer cells. This technology can be employed in core centers, research laboratories, and pharmaceutical industries to evaluate the efficacy of compounds against migration of various types of metastatic cancer cells prior to expensive animal tests and thus, streamline anti-migratory drug screening.

Keywords: Aqueous two-phase system; Cancer cell migration; Cell patterning; Compound screening; High throughput.