(Invited) Development of Cell-Based Biosensor Platform for Monitoring the Effect of Functional Nanocarriers As Drug Delivery System on Breast Cancer Cells

With the rapid emerging research of nanotechnology and engineering in biomedical applications, scientists start to develop state-of-the-art diverse biosensing platforms. Here, in-vitro cell-based biosensor (CBB) was fabricated using nano/micro technologies to electrophysiologically observe the effects of drug treatment on human breast cancer cells. Indium tin oxide coated vertically aligned silicon nanowires (ITO-coated VA-SiNWs) were applied as a cell monitoring CBB platform to investigate the growth and adhesion of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells via impedimetric method. Monitoring was performed by measuring the non-Faradaic electrical impedance of the cell–APTMS-modified ITO-coated VA-SiNWs system using a precision LCR meter. Our APTMS-modified ITO-coated VA-SiNWs exhibited changes in impedance parameters during cell growth. It was observed that during MCF-7 cell growth, the impedance magnitude increased. By contrast, the cytolysis of the cells led to significant changes in impedance parameters. Impedimetric cell monitoring platform has the ability to observe MCF-7 cell growth and adhesion and investigate anomalous and non-electrogenic cell behavior in toxin and drug screenings. With the aid of CBB platform, the real-time electrical signals can be applied to monitor the therapeutic efficacy of the nanocarriers in drug delivery system and screening large libraries of potential drugs for cancer treatment. Moreover, our pilot study indicates that our CBB could be a feasible platform to reduce/replace the use of animals based on the “Three R principles” in animal-based research in the future. Figure 1