Intracellular localization of drugs in cultured tumor cells by ion microscopy and image processing.

Several drugs, containing a halogen atom, F or Br, that are being used in antiviral or anticancer therapy, were studied for their localization in cultured cells by ion microanalysis. The association allows to reduce the exposure time to define the intracellular localization of the studied element. The topography of the cells is given by the image of the polyatomic ion 26CN-. The image of the distribution of 81Br- or 19F-, coded in another color scale, can be superimposed, giving a polychromic image of the cell, thus showing the intracellular localization of the compound. MCF-7 tumor cells were cultured in the presence of pyrimidine derivatives. 5-Bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BUdR) and 5-trifluorothymidine (F3TdR) were localized in the nucleus, 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine (FUdR) in the nucleus and only in some nucleoli. The method is simple and rapid, as compared with techniques using radiolabeled compounds, or with immunocytochemical techniques. It is possible to observe two different compounds in the same cell. It could be applied to other compounds containing a halogen atom.