Investigation of the uptake of drugs by individual cells using a scanning proton microprobe (SPM).

In this paper we demonstrate the use of micro-PIXE (proton induced X-ray emission) for measuring the quantitative uptake of anti-AIDS drugs, containing metal atoms, by individual Vero cells (African green monkey kidney cell line). Hetero-polytungstates, which are assessed to present an activity against the HIV virus, were studied using Vero cells. It was found that unlike other techniques, SPM offers both the sensitivity and the spatial resolution to carry out these programs of investigations. The use of elemental analysis in single cells of cultured cell lines has shown to have distinct advantages over peripheral blood lymphocytes.