Comparison of Cytotoxicity Evaluation of Anticancer Drugs between Real-Time Cell Analysis and CCK-8 Method

Abstract

Critical cytotoxicity evaluation of pharmaceuticals is necessary for the clinical practice of chemotherapy. To quantitatively evaluate cell viability, currently there are two main types of sensitive methods including real-time cell analysis (RTCA) and CCK-8 assay, in which RTCA records electrochemical signal changes around an incubated cell, whereas CCK-8 is based on the colorimetric method. Despite the different detection principles adopted for the cytotoxicity assessment, the comparison of the two methods in terms of the application scope is lacking. In this study, comparison studies were conducted between the RTCA and CCK-8 assays using anticancer drugs including doxorubicin hydrochloride, curcumin, irinotecan (CPT-11), taxol, and oxaliplatin, which are classified into two groups of drug molecules in the absence and presence of additives. The cytotoxicity evaluation of these drugs on cancer cells revealed that the physicochemical properties of drug formulations such as optical and electrochemical properties are closely linked with the readout of cytotoxic methods. The experimental results suggested that the preselection of cytotoxic assay is critical for the quantitative measurement of cytotoxicity of anticancer drugs, which is of clinical importance for their therapeutic usage.

In vitro cytocompatibility and osteogenic potential of calcium silicate-based dental cements in a root canal-filling model

“…11,12 In this study, we evaluated cell proliferation by CCK-8 assay, which is considered to have better detection sensitivity and accuracy than 3-[4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. 16 AH-P resulted in the lowest cell proliferation rate among the three types of endodontic sealers. Notably, the number of viable cells decreased significantly from days 1 to 3 and from days 5 to day 7, indicating a potential cytotoxic effect of AH-P on the hPDLSCs.…”

Metallodrugs are unique: opportunities and challenges of discovery and development

“…A limitation of colorimetric assays, is that spectroscopic interference needs to be considered when using coloured drugs. 143 The Sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay determines protein content by binding stoichiometrically to proteins under acidic conditions, presenting no compound interference. This assay requires several wash steps and is less sensitive for poorly adherent cells.…”

Precise engineering of Gemcitabine prodrug cocktails into single polymeric nanoparticles delivery for metastatic thyroid cancer cells

“…After incubation at 37 °C for 24 h, 10 μL of the CCK-8 solution was added to each well, and the absorbance at 520 nm was examined 2 h later by a microplate reader (Multiskan FC, Thermo Scientific, Waltham, MA). The percentage of cell inhibition by GEM and GEM-NPs was calculated and plotted in the graph by using GraphPad Prism Software (GraphPad Software, La Jolla, CA) (Ye et al., 2016 ; Tian et al., 2017 ; Cai et al., 2019 ). The percentage of cell viability was measured and cytotoxicity was shown as IC 50 and the data shown represent the average of three independent experiments.…”