Objective

Five year survival rates for breast cancer have shown strong improvements in recent years due to the successful identification of new and improved therapies. However, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) has proved challenging to target therapeutically, and is therefore associated with a significantly poorer prognosis compared to other breast cancer subtypes. In order to identify small molecules that preferentially target TNBC, two complementary imaging platforms were used to perform multiplexed assays of cell apoptosis and viability. The IncuCyte ZOOM system allows real time kinetic monitoring of cells, while the ImageXpress Micro Confocal platform is a high content confocal imaging system suitable for high-throughput screening applications. Using the LOPAC¹²⁸⁰ compound library, a screen was undertaken that measured cell apoptosis and viability in breast cancer cell models. Approximately 2% of the compound library was found to preferentially induce apoptosis in TNBC cells compared to luminal A breast cancer cells. The hits included compounds known to modulate hedgehog and FGF signalling.

This study demonstrates the application of multiplexed assay formats on complementary imaging platforms for compound screening projects. This approach successfully identified potential drug targets and pathways specific to TNBC cells, and is suitable for application across diverse disease areas.