Exploiting the mechanism of cellular glucose uptake to develop an image-based high-throughput screening system in living cells

Development of a Rapid In Vitro Screening Assay Using Metabolic Inhibitors to Detect Highly Selective Anticancer Agents

Traditional long exposure (24-72 h) cell viability assays for identification of potential drug compounds can fail to identify compounds that are: (a) biologically active but not toxic and (b) inactive without the addition of a synergistic additive. Herein, we report the development of a rapid (1-2 h) compound screening technique using a commercially available cell viability kit (CellTiter-Glo) that has led to the detection of compounds that were not identified as active agents using traditional cytotoxicity screening methods. These compounds, in combination with metabolic inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose, display selectivity toward a pancreatic cancer cell line. An evaluation of 11 mammalian cell lines against 30 novel compounds and two metabolic inhibitors is reported. The inclusion of metabolic inhibitors during an initial screening process, and not simply during mechanistic investigations of a previously identified hit compound, provides a rapid and sensitive tool for identifying drug candidates potentially overlooked by other methods.

The right tools for the job: the central role for next generation chemical probes and chemistry-based target deconvolution methods in phenotypic drug discovery

The reconnection of the scientific community with phenotypic drug discovery has created exciting new possibilities to develop therapies for diseases with highly complex biology. It promises to revolutionise fields such as neurodegenerative disease and regenerative medicine, where the development of new drugs has consistently proved elusive. Arguably, the greatest challenge in readopting the phenotypic drug discovery approach exists in establishing a crucial chain of translatability between phenotype and benefit to patients in the clinic. This remains a key stumbling block for the field which needs to be overcome in order to fully realise the potential of phenotypic drug discovery. Excellent quality chemical probes and chemistry-based target deconvolution techniques will be a crucial part of this process. In this review, we discuss the current capabilities of chemical probes and chemistry-based target deconvolution methods and evaluate the next advances necessary in order to fully support phenotypic screening approaches in drug discovery.

Nanoscale dynamic chemical, biological sensor material designs for control monitoring and early detection of advanced diseases

Early detection and easy continuous monitoring of emerging or re-emerging infectious, contagious or other diseases are of particular interest for controlling healthcare advances and developing effective medical treatments to reduce the high global cost burden of diseases in the backdrop of lack of awareness regarding advancing diseases. Under an ever-increasing demand for biosensor design reliability for early stage recognition of infectious agents or contagious diseases and potential proteins, nanoscale manufacturing designs had developed effective nanodynamic sensing assays and compact wearable devices. Dynamic developments of biosensor technology are also vital to detect and monitor advanced diseases, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), diabetes, cancers, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), tuberculosis, and central nervous system (CNS) disorders. In particular, nanoscale biosensor designs have indispensable contribution to improvement of health concerns by early detection of disease, monitoring ecological and therapeutic agents, and maintaining high safety level in food and cosmetics. This review reports an overview of biosensor designs and their feasibility for early investigation, detection, and quantitative determination of many advanced diseases. Biosensor strategies are highlighted to demonstrate the influence of nanocompact and lightweight designs on accurate analyses and inexpensive sensing assays. To date, the effective and foremost developments in various nanodynamic designs associated with simple analytical facilities and procedures remain challenging. Given the wide evolution of biosensor market requirements and the growing demand in the creation of early stage and real-time monitoring assays, precise output signals, and easy-to-wear and self-regulating analyses of diseases, innovations in biosensor designs based on novel fabrication of nanostructured platforms with active surface functionalities would produce ​remarkable biosensor devices. This review offers evidence for researchers and inventors to focus on biosensor challenge and improve fabrication of nanobiosensors to revolutionize consumer and healthcare markets.

Phenotype-Based High-Content Screening Using Fluorescent Chemical Bioprobes: Lipid Droplets and Glucose Uptake Quantification in Live Cells

Phenotypic screening in live cells has emerged as a promising strategy for drug discovery in pharmaceutical communities. For relevant phenotype-based screening setups, it is critical to develop adequate reporters in order to selectively visualize subcellular compartments or phenotypic changes that represent disease-related characteristics during compound screening. In this chapter, we introduce two phenotype-based high-content/high-throughput assays using fluorescent bioprobes that have been designed and refined to selectively stain cellular lipid droplets (LDs) and to show cellular glucose uptake. In conjunction with target identification process for the hit compounds from phenotypic screening, these fluorescent chemical probe-based screening techniques are expected to drive a great advancement for the discovery of novel first-in-class therapeutics.

Novel glycoconjugated squaraine dyes for selective optical imaging of cancer cells

Glycoconjugated squaraine dyes for selective internalisation in cancer cell lines are reported. The cancer cell selectivity was achieved through the “Warburg effect”.

A high-content screening platform with fluorescent chemical probes for the discovery of first-in-class therapeutics

Phenotypic screening has emerged as a promising approach to discover novel first-in-class therapeutic agents. Rapid advances in phenotypic screening systems facilitate a high-throughput unbiased evaluation of compound libraries. However, limited sets of phenotypic changes are utilized in high-content screening, which require extensive genetic engineering. Therefore, it is critical to develop new chemical probes that can reflect phenotypic changes in any type of cells, especially primary cells, tissues, and organisms. Herein, we introduce our continuous efforts in the development of fluorescent bioprobes and their application to phenotypic screening. In addition, we emphasize the importance of the phenotype-based approach in conjunction with target identification at an early stage of research to accelerate the discovery of therapeutics with new modes of action.

Impact of molecular charge on GLUT-specific cellular uptake of glucose bioprobes and in vivo application of the glucose bioprobe, GB2-Cy3

The molecular charge of fluorescent bioprobes has recently received much attention due to its influence on cellular uptake. Herein, we demonstrate the effect of the molecular charge of glucose bioprobes on their GLUT-specific cellular uptake. We also applied GB2-Cy3 to in vivo imaging in the zebrafish model.