Vertical impedance electrode array for spatiotemporal dynamics monitoring of 3D cells under drug diffusion effect

Yong Qiu; Xin Liu; Yuxuan Zhu; Deming Jiang; Fengheng Li; Weijie Yu; Hao Wan; Liujing Zhuang; Yuxiang Pan; Ping Wang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107962

Vertical impedance electrode array for spatiotemporal dynamics monitoring of 3D cells under drug diffusion effect

iScience. 2023 Sep 20;26(12):107962. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107962. eCollection 2023 Dec 15.

Authors

Yong Qiu^{1

2

3}, Xin Liu¹, Yuxuan Zhu¹, Deming Jiang¹, Fengheng Li¹, Weijie Yu¹, Hao Wan¹, Liujing Zhuang^{1

3}, Yuxiang Pan⁴, Ping Wang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Biosensor National Special Laboratory, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
² The MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science & Brain-machine Integration, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.
⁴ ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311215, China.

Abstract

Although three-dimensional (3D) tumor models feature more accurate responses to drugs, the Matrigel scaffold affects the drug diffusion effect. Obtaining accurate drug spatiotemporal response characteristics is of great significance in the drug screening domain. However, the conventional cell-based sensors are difficult to perform spatiotemporal dynamics impedance monitoring of 3D cells and evaluate the anti-cancer pharmacological effect. Here, we proposed a biosensing platform involving a vertical impedance electrode array (VIEA) chip and a multichannel detection system. The platform can dynamically record 3D cell impedance in the vertical direction, which is consistent with time- and location-dependent drug penetration, closely related to spatiotemporal cell viability under drug effects. The subtle changes of impedance signals in different locations induced by drug diffusion can be detected, which demonstrates its high performance in drug systematic evaluation. The universal and high-content 3D cell biosensing platform is believed to have promising potential in pharmacodynamics investigation and preclinical drug screening.

Keywords: Bioelectronics; Biological sciences; Natural sciences; Pharmacology.