High-Throughput Screening and High-Content Screening Utilization - Free Essay

High content screening is a type of automated microscopy and image examination method for biological activities in individual cells with an aim to locate different elements such as RNA inference (RNAi), peptides, and other tiny molecules. The study is done without using the treatment of agents, but labeling is done using fluorescent tags. This form of analysis has high potential. For instance, in high-content screening, different constituents concurrently use fluorescent tags with various absorption and emission maxima (Buschser et al., 2014). Another potential of High content screening is the ability to notice changes at a subcellular level such as cytoplasm vs. nucleus and other organelles hence enabling the recording of multiple data points. Also, besides the fluorescent tagging, there are a number of label-free assays that can be used in High Content Screening. Like high-content screening, high throughput is a research technique, especially in drug discovery and related fields such as biology and chemistry. It employs advanced operational and medical technology, such as robotics and high-speed data analysis and management software. With these aiding systems, the researcher can perform a tremendous amount of pharmacological and genetic examinations. High-throughput screening has vast potential besides its ability to support numerous tests on chemical and genetic studies. For instance, it enables the researcher to expeditiously detect active compounds and genes or even antibodies that harmonize a specific bimolecular pathway. The main difference between high-throughput screening and high-content screening is that the latter uses fluorescent tags for labeling and is assay-free while the former uses assays.

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Although high-throughput screening is helpful in scientific research, it has been found to have several challenges (Fox, 2006). For instance, there are high chances of false positive and false negative outcomes from and experiment. This is usually caused by factors such as technological faults, errors on the batch plate, and biological factors, for example, the presence of non-selective binders. Other challenges include contamination, and there could be toxicity caused by the compound under study, and also, it is a great challenge to finding specific targets of the screened molecule is usually a problem. The other challenge includes the high cost of equipment and the study’s reagents using the HTS method.

Both the high-content screening and the high throughput screening have a lot to be utilized in the next five years. Within the coming years, miniaturizing the assay format will solve the expense issue and will also render the entire laboratory screening process very fast. There will be an inclusion of more primary cells in HTS utilization in the future. Also, it is likely that the assay will be made to aim multiple genes concurrently. There is similarly a great utilization of high-content screening in the future. For instance, it will be used in genetic engineering to identify complex multiple-cell relations and in chemistry to find complex molecule drugs. There will be utilization in three-dimensional (3D) imaging and reconstruction processes and gene editing CRISPR-Cas9. HCS will also be used in whole-well imaging and in studying stem cells (Haney et al., 2006).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the two technologies, high-throughput screening and high-content screening have remained very helpful in studying biomedical aspects and new drugs discovered in the pharmacology field. Despite their challenges, these methods promise a great future if well studied and modified for them to be utilized in different other fields and in more aspects in the fields that they are already being utilized in.

References

Buchser, W., Collins, M., Garyantes, T., Guha, R., Haney, S., Lemmon, V., ... & Trask, O. J. (2014). Assay development guidelines for image-based high content screening, high content analysis and high content imaging. In Assay guidance manual [Internet]. Eli Lilly & Company and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.https://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK100913/%3Freport%3Dreader&hl=en&sa=T&oi=gsb-ggp&ct=res&cd=0&d=15385929038572062477&ei=BK5dX_2QAtKsmwGykL6ACA&scisig=AAGBfm3zxMit4dh9gyg4FunzEuGXBAmLiA

Fox, S. (2006). High Throughput Screening-Meeting the Challenges of More Cell-Based Assays and HCS. DDW DRUG DISCOVERY WORLD, 7(1), 51.https://www.ddw-online.com/screening/p148314-high-throughput-screening:-meeting-the-challenges-of-more-cell-based-assays-and-hcs.html

Haney, S. A., LaPan, P., Pan, J., & Zhang, J. (2006). High-content screening moves to the front of the line. Drug discovery today, 11(19-20), 889-894.https://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135964460600328X&hl=en&sa=T&oi=gsb&ct=res&cd=1&d=4757963646663803820&ei=G7BdX7HTN5OdmwH2g67gCw&scisig=AAGBfm3-mxFptJCdbSDXu1SlCMCIIXuoiA