CellInsight CX7 in High-Content Imaging: Cell Models, Techniques, and Disease Areas
Curated literature review of peer-reviewed studies that used the CellInsight CX7 High-Content Screening Platform. Each paper is summarised by cell type, imaging technique, and disease area, with links to Google Scholar and PubMed. Plankton & Zoom does not host paywalled content.
The CellInsight CX7 and CX7 LZR platforms are used for high-content, multi-well imaging in virology, oncology, and drug-discovery screens. The papers below illustrate how researchers exploit automated plate scanning, multi-channel fluorescence, and integrated analysis for phenotypic assays.
High-throughput high content quantification of HIV-1 viral infectious output.
Cell type: HEK293 cells, primary cells, macrophages
Imaging technique: high-content imaging, confocal microscopy
Disease area: infectious disease, virology, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, drug screening
Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) remains a global health issue and still drives the development of significant pathology and various comorbidities. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) can effectively suppress viral replication but is often initiated months or years after initial infection, leaving a substantial period in which viral replication progresses unchecked. While ART suppresses HIV-1 replication, it does not prohibit the development of HIV-1-associated comorbidities, highlig...
PloS one โ 2026 โ PMID 41886485
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TMPRSS2 inhibitors with broad-spectrum efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 (JN.1) and influenza A (H1N1) viruses protect mice from influenza A infection.
Cell type: A549 lung cancer cells, epithelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging, confocal microscopy
Disease area: infectious disease, virology, COVID-19, drug screening
Human TMPRSS2 is a type II transmembrane serine protease and an essential host factor for SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A virus (IAV H1N1) infections. It facilitates the cleavage of viral surface glycoproteins, which are required for membrane fusion. This importance makes it an attractive target for host-directed antiviral therapies. We previously identified N-0385 and N-0920 as nanomolar TMPRSS2 inhibitors and demonstrated their antiviral potency against several SARS-CoV-2 variants. Here, we screene...
Emerging microbes & infections โ 2026 โ PMID 41612887
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Drug-Induced Phospholipidosis as an Artifact in Antiviral Drug Repurposing.
Cell type: A549 lung cancer cells, HepG2 hepatoma cells, neurons, hepatocytes, epithelial cells
Imaging technique: live-cell imaging, high-content imaging, confocal microscopy
Disease area: cancer, infectious disease, virology, COVID-19
Drug repurposing, in principle, can speed antiviral drug discovery. Among the molecules most frequently advanced in such repurposing efforts is a group of structurally diverse cationic amphiphilic drugs (CADs). While CADs have shown micromolar to mid-nanomolar antiviral activity in cell-based assays, they can induce phospholipidosis, confounding repurposing efforts. A barrier to the identification of phospholipidosis inducers has been the involved nature of the microscopy assays used to characte...
ACS omega โ 2026 โ PMID 41939306
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Evaluation of a human 3D multicellular hepatic spheroid model as a platform for studying hepatic transporters.
Cell type: stem cells, fibroblasts, hepatocytes, endothelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging, confocal microscopy, brightfield microscopy, phase contrast microscopy
Disease area: cancer, fibrosis, inflammation
There is growing demand for improved in vitro liver models to better predict in vivo pharmacology, specifically drug disposition mediated by hepatic transporters and assessment of transporter-mediated drug interaction risk. While 2D sandwich-cultured human hepatocytes (SCHH) remain valuable, they are limited to short-term use due to hepatocyte de-differentiation and absence of non-parenchymal cells. Multicellular hepatic spheroids (MHS) offer a promising alternative, but transporter concentratio...
Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS โ 2025 โ PMID 41467945
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Modeling immune responses of cattle to Mycobacterium bovis using magnetic bioprinted granulomas.
Cell type: primary cells, fibroblasts, macrophages
Imaging technique: fluorescence microscopy, high-content imaging, confocal microscopy
Disease area: cancer, infectious disease, bacterial infection, COVID-19, fibrosis, inflammation
UNLABELLED: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a threat for human and livestock health. Mycobacteria causing TB are host-adapted pathogens that occasionally spill over into other species. Mycobacterium bovis causes bovine TB, a well-known zoonosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is adapted to humans and can occasionally trigger symptomatic infection in cattle. However, immunocompetent cattle are resistant to experimental infection with M. tuberculosis. Hallmarks of TB in susceptible hosts are organized multi...
mSphere โ 2025 โ PMID 41171005
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Functional and Structural Characterization of Treatment-Emergent Nirmatrelvir Resistance Mutations at Low Frequencies in the Main Protease (Mpro) Reveals a Unique Evolutionary Route for SARS-CoV-2 to Gain Resistance.
Cell type: cell lines
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, infectious disease, virology, COVID-19, diabetes
BACKGROUND: The main protease (Mpro) is one of the most attractive targets for antiviral drug discovery against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Mutations in Mpro have been linked to resistance against nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (NIR-RIT), an important therapy for SARS-CoV-2 infection. This study aimed to identify low-frequency antiviral resistance mutations in Mpro from NIR-RIT-treated patients and to analyze the enzymatic properties, inhibitor susceptibility, and struc...
The Journal of infectious diseases โ 2025 โ PMID 40459233
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Genome-wide analysis of host-encoded microRNAs modulating SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Cell type: HeLa cells, macrophages
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, infectious disease, virology, COVID-19
Viruses exploit cellular machinery to complete their replication cycle. Furthering our understanding of this process provides insight into the mechanism of virus replication and potential targets for antiviral therapeutics. Genome-wide CRISPR screens have identified cellular pathways important in the SARS-COV-2 infection process, including vesicular traffic, lipid homeostasis and PI3K signalling. Functional genomics-driven analysis of host-encoded microRNAs (miRNAs) impacting SARS-CoV-2 infectio...
Scientific data โ 2025 โ PMID 40745184
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MicroRNA-142-3p Overcomes Drug Resistance in Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Targeting YES1 and TWF1.
Cell type: stem cells, macrophages, hepatocytes, endothelial cells
Imaging technique: live-cell imaging, time-lapse microscopy, high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, infectious disease, virology, COVID-19, fibrosis, inflammation
Resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs, e.g., sorafenib and lenvatinib) presents a significant hurdle for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment, underscoring the need to decipher the underlying mechanisms for improved therapeutic strategies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as critical modulators in HCC progression and TKI resistance. In this study, we report a positive correlation between the expression levels of a tumor suppressor miRNA, miR-142-3p, and increased sensitivity to soraf...
International journal of molecular sciences โ 2025 โ PMID 40362400
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An annotated high-content fluorescence microscopy dataset with EGFP-Galectin-3-stained cells and manually labelled outlines.
Cell type: U2OS osteosarcoma cells
Imaging technique: fluorescence microscopy, high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, COVID-19
Many forms of bioimage analysis involve the detection of objects and their outlines. In the context of microscopy-based high-throughput drug and genomic screening and even in smaller scale microscopy experiments, the objects that most often need to be detected are cells. In order to develop and benchmark algorithms and neural networks that can perform this task, high-quality datasets with annotated cell outlines are needed. We have created a dataset, named Aitslab_bioimaging2, consisting of 60 f...
Data in brief โ 2025 โ PMID 39845150
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Mapping spatial organization of in vitro neuronal networks using high-content imaging.
Cell type: primary cells, stem cells, iPSCs, neurons
Imaging technique: fluorescence microscopy, high-content imaging, confocal microscopy
Disease area: Alzheimer's disease, virology, drug screening
Neuronal network formation is an intricate process by which individual neurons connect into a functional circuitry. At the subcellular level, neuronal connectivity is characterized by the number, size and strength of synapses. At the cellular level, in vitro network characterization remains a challenge due to the large number of neurons involved, spreading widely across a culture dish. Here, we demonstrate a pipeline using high-content confocal microscopy and automated image analysis to study sp...
Scientific reports โ 2025 โ PMID 41469777
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Differential restriction of chikungunya virus in primary human cardiac endothelial cells occurs at multiple steps in the viral life cycle.
Cell type: HeLa cells, HEK293 cells, A549 lung cancer cells, primary cells, iPSCs, fibroblasts, macrophages, endothelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: infectious disease, virology, COVID-19, cardiovascular disease, inflammation
Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) constitute a significant ongoing public health threat, as the mechanisms of pathogenesis remain incompletely understood. Cardiovascular symptomatology is emerging as an important manifestation of arboviral infection. We have recently studied the cardiac tropism implicated in cardiac infection in mice for the alphavirus chikungunya virus (CHIKV), and we therefore sought to evaluate the cardiac tropism of other emerging alphaviruses and arboviruses. Using huma...
PLoS neglected tropical diseases โ 2025 โ PMID 40063631
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The effects of Cannabidiol on podocytes in vitro.
Cell type: fibroblasts, neurons, endothelial cells, epithelial cells
Imaging technique: time-lapse microscopy, confocal microscopy
Disease area: cancer, diabetes, inflammation
Cannabidiol (CBD) is a popular non-psychoactive formulation commonly used to treat pain, anxiety, and nausea. Currently, CBD has little to no regulatory oversight in the United States thus, inconsistencies exist regarding how CBD is produced and controlled. Moreover, little is known about its precise biological impact on cells and tissues, particularly in the kidney. To address this, we utilized human immortalized podocytes treated with varying concentrations of CBD for different durations, and ...
Biochemical and biophysical research communications โ 2025 โ PMID 40967036
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Short-Term DMOG treatment rejuvenates senescent mesenchymal stem cells by enhancing mitochondrial function and mitophagy through the HIF-1ฮฑ/BNIP3 pathway.
Cell type: primary cells, stem cells, fibroblasts
Imaging technique: fluorescence microscopy, high-content imaging, confocal microscopy, Z-stack imaging
Disease area: virology
BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have potential for treating degenerative and immune diseases, but their clinical efficacy is limited by senescence, characterized by mitochondrial dysfunction, impaired mitophagy, and metabolic imbalance. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of dimethyloxalylglycine (DMOG), a hypoxia-mimetic agent that stabilizes hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1ฮฑ), on rejuvenating senescent MSCs by enhancing mitochondrial function, mitophagy, and ...
Stem cell research & therapy โ 2025 โ PMID 40457488
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Seoul orthohantavirus evades innate immune activation by reservoir endothelial cells.
Cell type: HEK293 cells, primary cells, macrophages, endothelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, infectious disease, virology, inflammation
Pathogenic hantaviruses are maintained world-wide within wild, asymptomatic rodent reservoir hosts, with increasingly frequent human spillover infections resulting in severe hemorrhagic fever or cardio-pulmonary disease. With no approved therapeutics or vaccines, research has, until recently, focused on understanding the drivers of immune-mediated pathogenesis. An emerging body of work is now investigating the mechanisms that allow for asymptomatic, persistent infections of mammalian reservoir h...
PLoS pathogens โ 2024 โ PMID 39585900
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The new preservative-free ophthalmic formulation of bilastine 0.6% preserves the ocular surface epithelial integrity in a comparative in vitro study.
Cell type: epithelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: infectious disease, inflammation
Allergic conjunctivitis (AC) is the most common form of allergic eye disease and an increasingly prevalent condition. Topical eye drop treatments are the usual approach for managing AC, although their impact on the ocular surface is not frequently investigated. The aim of this study was to perform a comparative physicochemical characterization, and in vitro biological evaluations in primary conjunctival and corneal epithelial cells of the new multidose preservative-free bilastine 0.6% and main c...
Scientific reports โ 2024 โ PMID 38671063
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Long non-coding RNA H19X as a regulator of mononuclear cell adhesion to the endothelium in systemic sclerosis.
Cell type: fibroblasts, endothelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, fibrosis, inflammation
OBJECTIVE: To define the functional relevance of H19 X-linked (H19X) co-expressed long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in endothelial cell (EC) activation as a key process in SSc vasculopathy. METHODS: H19X expression in SSc skin biopsies was analysed from single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data. Differential expression and pathway enrichment analysis between cells expressing (H19Xpos) and non-expressing H19X (H19Xneg) cells was performed. H19X function was investigated in human dermal microvascular...
Rheumatology (Oxford, England) โ 2024 โ PMID 38305495
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Neuroprotective mechanisms of luteolin in glutamate-induced oxidative stress and autophagy-mediated neuronal cell death.
Cell type: SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, neurons, endothelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging, confocal microscopy
Disease area: cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, virology, inflammation
Neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by progressive neuronal dysfunction and loss, pose significant health challenges. Glutamate accumulation contributes to neuronal cell death in diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. This study investigates the neuroprotective potential of Albizia lebbeck leaf extract and its major constituent, luteolin, against glutamate-induced hippocampal neuronal cell death. Glutamate-treated HT-22 cells exhibited reduced viability, altered morphology, increased ROS, a...
Scientific reports โ 2024 โ PMID 38565590
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Ailanthone ameliorates pulmonary fibrosis by suppressing JUN-dependent MEOX1 activation.
Cell type: HeLa cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, epithelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, virology, bacterial infection, fibrosis, inflammation
Pulmonary fibrosis poses a significant health threat with very limited therapeutic options available. In this study, we reported the enhanced expression of mesenchymal homobox 1 (MEOX1) in pulmonary fibrosis patients, especially in their fibroblasts and endothelial cells, and confirmed MEOX1 as a central orchestrator in the activation of profibrotic genes. By high-throughput screening, we identified Ailanthone (AIL) from a natural compound library as the first small molecule capable of directly ...
Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B โ 2024 โ PMID 39220862
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Therapeutic efficacy of a potent anti-Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus antibody is contingent on Fc effector function.
Cell type: macrophages
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, Alzheimer's disease, infectious disease, virology, COVID-19, inflammation
The development of specific, safe, and potent monoclonal antibodies (Abs) has led to novel therapeutic options for infectious disease. In addition to preventing viral infection through neutralization, Abs can clear infected cells and induce immunomodulatory functions through engagement of their crystallizable fragment (Fc) with complement proteins and Fc receptors on immune cells. Little is known about the role of Fc effector functions of neutralizing Abs in the context of encephalitic alphaviru...
mAbs โ 2024 โ PMID 38170638
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A novel class of broad-spectrum active-site-directed 3C-like protease inhibitors with nanomolar antiviral activity against highly immune-evasive SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants.
Cell type: epithelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, infectious disease, virology, COVID-19
Antivirals with broad coronavirus activity are important for treating high-risk individuals exposed to the constantly evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) as well as emerging drug-resistant variants. We developed and characterized a novel class of active-site-directed 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro) inhibitors (C2-C5a). Our lead direct-acting antiviral (DAA), C5a, is a non-covalent, non-peptide with a dissociation constant of 170 nM against recombinant SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro. The comp...
Emerging microbes & infections โ 2023 โ PMID 37555275
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Different Directions of Effects of Polyclonal IgG Antibodies from Patients with Schizophrenia and Healthy Individuals on Cell Death In Vitro: A Pilot Study.
Cell type: SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, fibroblasts, neurons
Imaging technique: fluorescence microscopy
Disease area: cancer, virology, bacterial infection, inflammation
Numerous studies indicate the involvemen of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. It has been shown that the serum pool of antibodies in patients with schizophrenia contains catalytically active antibodies (abzymes) that have a wide range of activities, including redox properties. In the present work, the effects of IgGs-having oxidoreductase activities-isolated from the serum of patients with schizophrenia and healthy individuals were studied in vitro. The IgGs were purified by...
Current issues in molecular biology โ 2023 โ PMID 37185730
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Berbamine suppresses intestinal SARS-CoV-2 infection via a BNIP3-dependent autophagy blockade.
Cell type: HEK293 cells, HepG2 hepatoma cells, primary cells, endothelial cells, epithelial cells
Imaging technique: fluorescence microscopy, high-content imaging, confocal microscopy
Disease area: cancer, infectious disease, virology, bacterial infection, COVID-19, inflammation
SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of COVID-19, continues to threaten global public health. COVID-19 is a multi-organ disease, causing not only respiratory distress, but also extrapulmonary manifestations, including gastrointestinal symptoms with SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding in stool long after respiratory clearance. Despite global vaccination and existing antiviral treatments, variants of concern are still emerging and circulating. Of note, new Omicron BA.5 sublineages both increasingly evade neutraliz...
Emerging microbes & infections โ 2023 โ PMID 36951188
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Discovery of lead natural products for developing pan-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics.
Cell type: epithelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging, confocal microscopy
Disease area: cancer, Alzheimer's disease, infectious disease, virology, COVID-19, diabetes, drug screening
The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), remains a global public health crisis. The reduced efficacy of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs), such as omicron BA.5 subvariants, has underlined the need to explore a novel spectrum of antivirals that are effective against existing and evolving SARS-CoV-2 VOCs. To address the need for novel therapeutic options, we applied cell-based high-content ...
Antiviral research โ 2023 โ PMID 36503013
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CCR4-NOT differentially controls host versus virus poly(a)-tail length and regulates HCMV infection.
Cell type: fibroblasts
Imaging technique: high-content imaging
Disease area: cancer, infectious disease, virology
Unlike most RNA and DNA viruses that broadly stimulate mRNA decay and interfere with host gene expression, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) extensively remodels the host translatome without producing an mRNA decay enzyme. By performing a targeted loss-of-function screen in primary human fibroblasts, we here identify the host CCR4-NOT deadenylase complex members CNOT1 and CNOT3 as unexpected pro-viral host factors that selectively regulate HCMV reproduction. We find that the scaffold subunit CNOT1 is...
EMBO reports โ 2023 โ PMID 37846490
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The role of small GTPases in bisphenol AF-induced multinucleation in comparison with dibutyl phthalate in the male germ cells.
Cell type: MCF-7 breast cancer cells, stem cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells
Imaging technique: high-content imaging, confocal microscopy
Disease area: cancer, inflammation
The goal of this study is to examine bisphenol AF (BPAF)-induced multinucleation (MNC) in comparison with dibutyl phthalate (DBP), known to induce MNC in mouse gonocytes in vivo. We performed image-based single-cell high content analysis (HCA) in the mouse spermatogonia C18-4 cells treated with various concentrations of BPAF and DBP. BPAF as low as 5โยตM was cytotoxic and resulted in 40% cell death of the C18-4 cells after 72โh. HCA revealed that 5โยตM of BPAF significantly increased the number of...
Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology โ 2023 โ PMID 36625514
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