CELL-BASED SENSOR CHIP FOR NEUROTOXICITY MEASUREMENTS IN DRINKING WATER

Authors

  • Dennis Flachs
  • Manuel Ciba

Keywords:

microelectrode array, carbamazepine, neurotoxicity, cell-based biosensor

Abstract

Our drinking water contains residues of pharmaceuticals. A sub-group of these contaminants are neuro-active substances, the antiepileptic carbamazepine being one of the most relevant. For assessment of the neurotoxicity of this drug at a sub-therapeutic level, a cell-based sensor chip platform has been realized and characterized. For this purpose, a microelectrode array chip was designed and processed in a clean room and optimized in terms of low processing costs and good recording properties. For characterization of the system neuronal cells were plated on microelectrode array chips and electrical activity was measured as a function of applied carbamazepine concentration. We found that the relative spike rate decreased with increasing drug concentration resulted in IC50 values of around 36 μM. This value is five orders of magnitude higher than the maximal dose found in drinking water. IC50 values for burst rate, burst duration and synchrony were slightly higher, suggesting spike rate being a more sensitive parameter to carbamazepine.

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Published

2016-06-29

Issue

Section

Original Research