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Abstract Drug discovery and safety testing depend on predictive in vitro models, including multicellular tissues with organotypic functions. While traditional 2D tumor cell cultures have been extensively used in early drug screening due to their user-friendly nature, automation compatibility, and high throughput, they fall short in representing the intricate 3-dimensional structure, physiology, and complex multicellular nature of actual tumors. However, generating such 3D tissues for each test campaign is labor intensive. In addition, not all researchers have the resources to establish these 3D models. To pave the way, we developed a new platform that offers a range of cryopreserved 3D tumor models in micro plate format allowing for high-content screening. It enables users to start testing compounds within a 3-to-5 days simply by thawing an ARCTis™ plate (Always Ready Cryo Tissues) and following clear instructions. Another advantage of these cryopreserved 3D models derives from the fact that they are made in larger batches which means the start point for compound testing is always the same. This improves data quality, maximizes the test window length, and makes the data comparable across work groups. Currently, our growing portfolio consists of 25 tumor cell lines from ATCC representing the most common solid tumors. Their functionality has been determined based on efficacy tests for each cell line with the apoptotic agent Staurosporine. Various cell lines exhibited compact spheroids with a round morphology, less compact aggregates with non-spherical morphology, or loose cell-cell interaction aggregates, which can correlate with their tumor site of origin. Upon treatment with Staurosporine the dose-response profiles indicated growth inhibition, tumor shrinkage, or tumor cell killing effects based on size assessment and cell metabolic analysis (ATP). Moreover, we demonstrated the robust performance of these assays from plates stored for up to 6 months at -80°C. In conclusion, this groundbreaking approach addresses the limitations of traditional 2D cell cultures by providing a high-throughput, in-plate frozen, 3D cell culture platform. By offering a combination of a more physiologically relevant representation of tumors with a robust frozen-storage and time flexible assay platform our method holds great promise for advancing cancer drug discovery by easing the exploration of complex drug testing screens in vitro. Citation Format: Nils Goedecke, Simon Stroebel, Simon Hutter, Tala Issa, Irina Agarkova, Laure-Anne Ligeon, Olivier Frey. New microplate platform with cryopreserved 3D tumor spheroids for faster and convenient pre-clinical testing abstract. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts) ; 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84 (6Suppl): Abstract nr 6778.
Goedecke et al. (Fri,) studied this question.