Specific Capture and Release of Circulating Tumor Cells Using Aptamer-Modified Nanosubstrates

Shen, Q ; Xu, L  ; Zhao, L ; Wu, D ; Fan, Y  ; Zhou, Y ; OuYang, W ; Xu, X ; Zhang, Z ; Song, M ; Lee, T ; Garcia, M ; Xiong, B ; Hou, S ; Tseng, HR ; Fang, X.*; Advanced Materials, 2013, 25，2368-2373.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been highly regarded as cancer “biomarker” that could report disease progression and guide implementation of therapy. Utilizing a variety of nanostructured materials, it has been reported that CTCs are captured even at low abundance. However, it is as important to molecularly and functionally analyze these captured cells to obtain more biomedical insights. For this purpose, we have demonstrated a new microfluidic chip that is capable of not only capturing NSCLC CTCs from blood with high efficiency, but also recovering the nanosubstrate-immobilized NSCLC CTCs upon treatment of a nuclease solution. Two single-stranded DNA-aptamers were generated via Cell-SELEX process to replace conventional anti-body based capture agents, allowing specific capture and release of NSCCL cells from whole-blood samples using aptamer-grafted chips.  It is conceivable that, by this new diagnostic platform, the CTC-derived molecular signatures and functional readouts will provide valuable insight into tumor biology during the critical window where therapeutic intervention could make a significant difference.