High-throughput screening platform for anticancer therapeutic drug cytotoxicity.

There are substances that kill cancer cells, but induce T cell proliferation, like thalidomide. To find more of these, a new anticancer drug screening strategy is vital. In this study we report the development of a differential cytotoxicity screening or evaluation platform using the CellTiter-Glo (Promega, Annandale, NSW, Australia) luminescent cell viability assay (ATP assay) and also the CellTiter 96 AQueous (Promega) one solution cell proliferation assay [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium, inner salt (MTS) assay]. The results suggested the platform consisting of the combination of the ATP assay be used for quantifying peripheral blood mononuclear cells, while the more economic MTS colorimetric assay is well suited to be used detecting cell viability of cancer cells. In addition, we found paclitaxel (Taxol, MP Biomedicals Australasia Pty Ltd., Seven Hills, NSW, Australia) to be a useful control for this routine screening methodology. Taxol exhibits the desirable in vitro feature of differential cytotoxicity that spares the immunological cells, when used at a concentration that will kill the majority of the cancer cell population.