Cell Microarray: An Approach to Evaluate Drug-Induced Alterations in Protein Expression

Abstract

Designing reliable in vitro assays is crucial to obtain impactful results in oncology research. Here, we describe a histology-based method to evaluate the changes in biomarker expression after being subjected to several drug conditions and explore the mechanisms of therapy resistance in a chip-like tool, such as a cell microarray. This methodology has great potential in cancer research because we can evaluate a variety of cell culture conditions on a single microscope slide, enabling rapid screening of biomarkers using microscopic images of cultured cells. Indeed, the cell microarray presents several advantages over the Western blot option to evaluate protein expression in cell cultures, enabling visualization of the protein cellular localization and side-by-side condition comparison of the results. This chapter summarizes the main technical aspects of cell microarray construction, addressing the advantages and limitations, and its potential applications in the screening of biomarkers and tracking the phenotypic modifications on cancer cell lines after being exposed to different therapeutical conditions.