Real-time Electrophysiological Monitoring of Anti-histamine Drug Effects on Live Cells via Reusable Carbon Nanotube Sensor

Here, we developed a real-time electrophysiological method for monitoring the effects of drugs on live cells via a reusable carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (CNT-FET) sensor. The real-time electrophysiological responses of an individual HeLa cell could be measured repeatedly with the system. The sensor measured the electrical signal induced by the activity of histamine type 1 receptors on a HeLa cell regulated by histamine. Furthermore, the effects of drugs such as cetirizine and chlorophenamine on the HeLa cell were assessed. Remarkably, we exploited only a single sensor to record the activity of numerous HeLa cells to reduce the errors caused by device-to-device variations. Our method provides reliable and statistically-meaningful data to study the activity of live cells. We could expect our method using the reusable CNT-FET sensors to contribute to the pharmaceutical and biological research.