Figure 5: Transport of BKM120 (a BBB-penetrant drug) and dabrafenib (a non-penetrant drug) into BBB spheroids.
From: Blood-brain-barrier spheroids as an in vitro screening platform for brain-penetrating agents
(a) Co-incubation of spheroids with BKM120 or dabrafenib (at 10 μM concentration) and with FITC-dextran (70 kDa; at 10 μg ml−1 concentration) for 24 h did not affect spheroid’s surface integrity. The graph displays the mean fluorescence intensity of dextran (FITC) at 88 μm depth from the surface of each spheroid with s.d. error bars (nspheroid=3–6). Statistical analyses were performed using the one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparison test. (b) MALDI-MSI ion images of sections of BBB spheroids incubated with BKM120 or dabrafenib (nspheroid=150, ntissue=2). Top panels show the distribution of BKM120 (in green, m/z 411.1751±0.001). Lower panels indicate that dabrafenib (m/z 520.1083±0.001) was not detected in the BBB spheroids. Dashed lines on the scanned images delineate the positions of the BBB spheres tissue sections. Scale bars are indicated within each image.
