Abstract 363: Establishment of multicellular tumor spheroids-based assay for screening of novel therapeutics

Abstract 3D cell culture system is highlighted as new method to screen for new cancer therapies. The multicellular tumor spheroid cultures are closely similar to pathophysiological gradients of in vivo tumors and subsequently an ideal screening model for new drugs. Hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) is resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic agents and remains an unmet medical need. Hence, we focused in developing tumor spheroids-based screening assay to identify new drugs to treat HCC. Tumor spheroid cultures were formed in hydrogel coated multi-well plates within 3 days followed by 3 days treatment with reference compounds (Doxorubicin, Etoposide, Methotrexate, Taxol, etc.). Bright images of tumor spheroids were visualized by Operetta imaging system in the presence and absence of reference compounds. Cell viability of spheroids were measured by resazurin assay. In the results, assay was developed and validated using multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) cultures composed of Huh7 (HCC cells), WI38 (fibroblasts), LX2 (hepatic stellate cells) and HUVEC (endothelial cells) to recapitulate HCC tumor microenvironments. We also addressed the effect of sorafenib on the growth of spheroids composed of Huh7 alone or MCTS. Results from this study indicate that sorafenib was less efficacious (IC50 = 8.0μM) in the MCTS compared to its effect on Huh7 spheroid (IC50 = 3.8 μM). In summary, we have established and validated a highly reproducible MCTS-based assay. Based on this results, MCTS based-HTS system can offer a new model for drug screening and significantly improve the efficiency of identifying new drugs for liver cancer therapy. Citation Format: Yeonhwa Song, Haengran Seo. Establishment of multicellular tumor spheroids-based assay for screening of novel therapeutics. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 363.