The Effects of Thymus Plant Extracts on Single Breast Cancer Cell Morphology in the Microfluidic Channel

Microfluidics based systems could be useful for drug discovery as they allow for miniaturization and could potentially be run as multiple parallel cell based assays. Such miniaturization allows assays at single cell level and reduces the amount of test material needed, which, in the case of natural product extracts, simplifies the preparation. Thyme species extracts have been reported to show some promising anti-cancer effects. In the present work, we used a microfluidics based system to study the effects of Thymus kotschyanusm Boiss plant extract on two human breast cancer cells lines which are MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7. For better understanding a single cancer cell death mechanism and a flow control, a Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic device has been fabricated. The morphology of single cancer cells in the microfluidic system showed that the higher concentration of plant Thymus extract (560 µg/ml) had a significant effect on the cell membrane compared to the lower concentration (15 µg/ml). In addition, the results showed that MDA-MB-231 cells were more sensitive to the cytotoxic effects of the extracts compared to the MCF-7 cells. These results concur with the MTT assay analysis that showed the IC50 values of the extract in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells to be 15 µg/ml and 60 µg/ml, respectively. This proof-of-principle study suggests the possibility of the use of microfluidics systems for natural product research. These systems could allow the development of miniaturized multiple parallel cell based assays which are measured with sensors and used for natural product drug discovery consistent with the needs of Industry 4.0.