The major goal for Medical Science to enable early detection and monitoring of various forms of cancer is to facilitate the capturing of elusive circulating tumor cells (CTC) in whole blood. Several advanced capture techniques have been designed to facilitate CTC capture in an efficient and cost effective manner, in order to make possible- the early detection as well as causing minimum damage to the captured cells.
Recently, microfluidic devices have been the focus of much research and development, and have had much success in the field of CTC capture. In the past we’ve covered CTC capture microfluidic chips with a >90% efficiency, and chips designed purely for separation of white blood cells from whole blood. However, we have yet to cover an efficient and effective chip designed for CTC capture. Now researchers at University of Michigan have created a microfluidic approach that may overcome some of the downsides of existing technology.
The new technology makes use of gold particles shaped as a flower to attract graphene oxide nanosheets to stick to them. Wherein, the graphene oxide molecule promotes and induces the growth of molecular chains that grab on to the CTCs. The team tested the technology on samples taken from pancreatic, breast and lung cancer patients, and showed that their technology delivers high sensitivity of detection at a low concentration of CTCs in a given sample.
To test the device, the team ran one-milliliter samples
of blood through the chip’s thin chamber. Even when they had added just
three-to-five cancer cells to the 5-10 billion blood cells, the chip was
able to capture all of the cells in the sample half the time, with an
average of 73 percent over 10 trials.The team counted the captured cancer cells by tagging them with
fluorescent molecules and viewing them through a microscope. These tags
made the cancer cells easy to distinguish from accidentally caught blood
cells. They also grew breast cancer cells over six days, using an
electron microscope to see how they spread across the gold flowers.
For further details:
Study in Nature Nanotechnology: Sensitive capture of circulating tumour cells by functionalized graphene oxide nanosheets
Recently, microfluidic devices have been the focus of much research and development, and have had much success in the field of CTC capture. In the past we’ve covered CTC capture microfluidic chips with a >90% efficiency, and chips designed purely for separation of white blood cells from whole blood. However, we have yet to cover an efficient and effective chip designed for CTC capture. Now researchers at University of Michigan have created a microfluidic approach that may overcome some of the downsides of existing technology.
The new technology makes use of gold particles shaped as a flower to attract graphene oxide nanosheets to stick to them. Wherein, the graphene oxide molecule promotes and induces the growth of molecular chains that grab on to the CTCs. The team tested the technology on samples taken from pancreatic, breast and lung cancer patients, and showed that their technology delivers high sensitivity of detection at a low concentration of CTCs in a given sample.
An optical microscope reveals a cancer cell attached to the flower pattern.
For further details:
Study in Nature Nanotechnology: Sensitive capture of circulating tumour cells by functionalized graphene oxide nanosheets
