Investigating Combinatorial Drug Effects on Adhesion and Suspension Cell Types Using a Microfluidic-Based Sensor System

摘要

Present medical practitioners apply combination drug therapy for faster and effective treatment of diseases. Every individual's reaction to certain drugs or drug combinations is different. Mix and match of drugs is common but they can have adverse complications in the body or sometimes be useful in accelerating the treatment. The uncertainty is very high due to non-linearity of drug interactions. Hence optimization is required, so that the effect of the therapy is useful. The present paper discusses a microfluidic-based sensor system that can carry out simultaneous investigations of cell outcomes, exposed to a combination of drugs. It consists of a PDMS based microfluidic-chip that can generate serial combinations of two compounds in a single step and a bioreactor to house the chip, designed to provide favourable conditions for cell growth. The results confirm that the chip can be used for long and short term monitoring of various cell types.