An integrated microfluidics platform with high-throughput single-cell cloning array and concentration gradient generator for efficient cancer drug effect screening

Background:Tumor cell heterogeneity mediated drug resistance has been recognized as the stumbling block of cancer treatment.Elucidating the cytotoxicity of anticancer drugs at single-cell level in a high-throughput way is thus of great value for developing precision therapy.However,current techniques suffer from limitations in dynamically characterizing the responses of thousands of single cells or cell clones presented to multiple drug conditions.Methods:We developed a new microfluidics-based“SMART”platform that is Simple to operate,able to generate a Massive single-cell array and Multiplex drug concentrations,capable of keeping cells Alive,Retainable and Trackable in the microchambers.These features are achieved by integrating a Microfluidic chamber Array(4320 units)and a sixConcentration gradient generator(MAC),which enables highly efficient analysis of leukemia drug effects on single cells and cell clones in a high-throughput way.Results:A simple procedure produces 6 on-chip drug gradients to treat more than 3000 single cells or single-cell derived clones and thus allows an efficient and precise analysis of cell heterogeneity.The statistic results reveal that Imatinib(Ima)and Resveratrol(Res)combination treatment on single cells or clones is much more efficient than Ima or Res single drug treatment,indicated by the markedly reduced half maximal inhibitory concentration(IC50).Additionally,single-cell derived clones demonstrate a higher IC_(50) in each drug treatment compared to single cells.Moreover,primary cells isolated from two leukemia patients are also found with apparent heterogeneity upon drug treatment on MAC.Conclusions:This microfluidics-based“SMART”platform allows high-throughput single-cell capture and culture,dynamic drug-gradient treatment and cell response monitoring,which represents a new approach to efficiently investigate anticancer drug effects and should benefit drug discovery for leukemia and other cancers.

Hydrophobic terminal group of surfactant initiating micellization as revealed by^1H NMR spectroscopy

The critical aggregation concentration（CAC） of four with three kinds of conventional surfactants, namely,two cationic surfactants [hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide（CTAB） and tetradecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide（TTAB）], one anionic surfactant [sodium dodecyl sulfate（SDS）], and a nonionic surfactant [Triton X-100（TX-100）], were determined by variation of ^1H chemical shifts with surfactant concentrations. Results show that the CAC values of protons at different positions of the same molecule are different, and those of the terminal methyl protons are the lowest, respectively, which suggests that the terminal groups of the alkyl chains aggregates first during micellization. Measurement of the transverse relaxation time（T2） of different protons in SDS also show that the terminal methyl protons start to decrease with the increase in concentration first, which supports the above mentioned tendency.