Scientists from Texas Medical Center in Houston have unveiled a technique for growing 3-D cell cultures, a technological leap from the flat petri dish that could save millions of dollars in drug-testing costs. The research is reported in Nature Nanotechnology. The 3-D technique, which is easy for most labs to set up immediately, uses magnetic forces to levitate cells while they divide and grow. Compared with cell cultures grown on flat surfaces, the 3-D cell cultures tend to form tissues that more closely resemble those inside the body. “The body is 3-D, and cultures that more closely resemble native tissue are expected to provide better results for preclinical drug tests,” says study co-author Tom Killian, PhD, associate professor of physics at Rice University. “If you could improve the accuracy of early drug screenings by just 10%, it’s estimated you could save as much as $100 million per drug.”
For cancer research, the invisible scaffold created by the magnetic field goes beyond its potential for producing cell cultures that better resemble actual tumors, says co-author Wadih Arap, PhD, professor in the David H. Koch Center at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. To make cells levitate, the research team modified a combination of gold nanoparticles and engineered viral particles called phages that was developed in Arap’s lab. The targeted “nanoshuttle” can deliver payloads to specific organs or tissues.
“A logical next step for us will be to use this additional magnetic property in targeted ways to explore possible applications in the imaging and treatment of tumors,” Arap says. The 3-D modeling raises another interesting long-term possibility. Researchers also note the technology may be useful in building better models of human organs. The start-up Nano3D Biosciences, which licensed the technology from Rice and M.D. Anderson, is conducting additional tests to compare how the new method stacks up against existing methods of growing 3-D cell cultures.
Source: Science Daily