Implementation of ECIS technology for the characterization of potential therapeutic drugs that promote wound-healing

Screening for bioactive substances has revolutionized the process for identifying novel molecular targets for drug discovery. Such active biological substances have already been generated by nature for millennia but the technical know-how to isolate and characterize them has only been available for a short time. These new possibilities have increased our interest in the establishment of innovative Cell-based Test Systems and the investigation of cyanobacteria (Nostoc) to identify novel active substances that might lead to further drug development. Therefore different substances from Nostoc, isolated by our collaborators (University of South-Bohemia, Czech Republic), were screened for their potential bioactive wound healing property by using the ECIS Technology. The electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Sensing (ECIS) (invented by I. Giaever and C. Keese in the early 1980s), is a non-invasive technique which monitors live cells in situ and in real time. A small amplitude AC signal is imposed across a pair of electrodes onto which cells are deposited. The resulting impedance is being calculated by the ECIS device. ECIS is capable of detecting the behaviour of cells at every phase of a culture from the attachment, the spreading, the growth, the mitosis, and to death. This versatile technique has been successfully established to study adhesion, cell locomotion, wound healing (cell migration), tumour cell infiltration (metastasis), response to toxicants, and can be used for various other applications. Ease of implementation and broad applicability make ECIS an ideal tool for any type of adherent cell-based assays. Using ECIS technology we found out that 6% of the bioactive substances have wound healing properties. Further investigations are needed to elucidate the function of these potential therapeutic drugs. This newly established Cell-based Test System is an ideal technique for the screening of potential bioactive substances and offer an innovative and novel way to discover new therapeutic drugs which will prove invaluable to the pharmaceutical industry.