High Throughput Screening Techniques in Anticancer Drug Discovery and Development from Botanicals

Botanicals obtained from nature are the major source of therapeutic medicines for humans. Utilization of botanicals for a variety of diseases is not mysterious, and a rapid increase in such therapeutic substances is observed due to their efficacy and long-term safety. Cancer, as a leading cause of disease worldwide, piques the interest of researchers seeking novel anticancer agents. Till date, the major share of cancer medicines is occupied by natural products, and the drug discovery process is rapidly going on. However, traditional anticancer drug discovery is time-consuming and herculean. High-throughput screening (HTS) is a tool to make natural product library screening easy and fast. The advancement of extraction, isolation, and structure characterization of Phyto actives obtained from botanicals, provides a large number of compounds for testing via HTS. High-density well plates, a liquid handling platform, automation, and robotics allow the screening of 100,000 compounds per day. Anticancer screening of botanicals by HTS can be performed on various cancer cell lines along with molecular targets, enzyme or protein interaction assays, or the capacity of the extract to induce apoptosis. After the replication of identified extracts, further assays are performed for more precise results. HTS screening and computational methods provide speed and a high degree of sensitivity for anticancer agents and compress the time required for drug discovery. Advances in HTS technology, such as ultra-HTS and the use of 3-D cultures, will speed up the process of discovering anticancer drugs from botanicals. Advanced detection techniques for HTS assays, as well as instrumental techniques for identified lead compound separation, help to ensure that the results are neat. 

Keywords: Assay, Anticancer, Automization, Apoptosis, Botanicals, Cell proliferation, Dereplication, Drug Discovery, Extracts, High Throughput Screening (HTS), Hit, Lead, Liquid handling platform, Molecular assay, Miniaturization, Natural products, Phytoconstituents, Target identification.