A high-throughput fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based endothelial cell apoptosis assay and its application for screening vascular disrupting agents

• Main Authors: Zhu, Xiaoming, Fu, Afu, Luo, Kathy Qian
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/100445; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/11041
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this study, we developed a high-throughput endothelial cell apoptosis assay using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based biosensor. After exposure to apoptotic inducer UV-irradiation or anticancer drugs such as paclitaxel, the fluorescence of the cells changed from green to blue. We developed this method into a high-throughput assay in 96-well plates by measuring the emission ratio of yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) to cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) to monitor the activation of a key protease, caspase-3, during apoptosis. The Z′ factor for this assay was above 0.5 which indicates that this assay is suitable for a high-throughput analysis. Finally, we applied this functional high-throughput assay for screening vascular disrupting agents (VDA) which could induce endothelial cell apoptosis from our in-house compounds library and dioscin was identified as a hit. As this assay allows real time and sensitive detection of cell apoptosis, it will be a useful tool for monitoring endothelial cell apoptosis in living cell situation and for identifying new VDA candidates via a high-throughput screening.