Journal Article
Advanced Science, 2023
Authors
Zixuan Lu, Chiara Barberio, Ana Fernandez‐Villegas, Aimee Withers, Alexandra Wheeler, Konstantinos Kallitsis, Eleonora Martinelli, Achilleas Savva, Becky M. Hess, Anna‐Maria Pappa, Gabriele S. Kaminski Schierle, Róisín M. Owens
Abstract
AbstractDrug studies targeting neuronal ion channels are crucial to understand neuronal function and develop therapies for neurological diseases. The traditional method to study neuronal ion‐channel activities heavily relies on the whole‐cell patch clamp as the industry standard. However, this technique is both technically challenging and labour‐intensive, while involving the complexity of keeping cells alive with low throughput. Therefore, the shortcomings are limiting the efficiency of ion‐channel‐related neuroscience research and drug testing. Here, this work reports a new system of integrating neuron membranes with organic microelectrode arrays (OMEAs) for ion‐channel‐related drug studies. This work demonstrates that the supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) derived from both neuron‐like (neuroblastoma) cells and primary neurons are integrated with OMEAs for the first time. The increased expression of voltage‐gated calcium (CaV) ion channels on differentiated SH‐SY5Y SLBs compared to non‐differentiated ones is sensed electrically. Also, dose‐response of the CaV ion‐channel blocking effect on primary cortical neuronal SLBs from rats is monitored. The dose range causing ion channel blocking is comparable to literature. This system overcomes the major challenges from traditional methods (e.g., patch clamp) and showcases an easy‐to‐test, rapid, ultra‐sensitive, cell‐free, and high‐throughput platform to monitor dose‐dependent ion‐channel blocking effects on native neuronal membranes.
