Dual Stealth Functional Immuno-magnetic Nanoparticles for High-Performance Isolation of Circulating Tumor Cells

Anal Chem. 2023 Aug 15;95(32):11885-11891. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.3c00143. Epub 2023 Jun 22.

Abstract

As a biomarker of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) biopsy, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are often used in the diagnosis of cancer and treatment guidance. For CTCs detection, immuno-magnetic nanoparticles (IMNs) are one of the most commonly used platforms. However, the nonspecific adsorption of proteins and non-tumor cells weakens the performance of IMNs to capture CTCs. In this work, we developed an IMNs platform which was constructed by a biomimetic protein corona precoating and a polyethylene glycol (PEG) spacer to form the PEG and corona-coated IMNs (IP-CMNs). Due to the dual stealth effect of protein corona precoating and PEG spacer, the nonspecific protein adsorption and cell binding of P-CMNs could reduce by ∼5.5- and ∼5.4-fold, respectively, compared with those of unmodified particles. Furthermore, the PEG spacer could not only reduce the interaction between IP-CMNs and leukocytes but also enhance the capture performance toward tumor cells. By using artificial blood samples, the capture efficiency of IP-CMNs toward rare CTCs was found to be 88.3%, while it was 70.5% by using commercial IMNs. Finally, CTCs were successfully isolated in all HCC patient blood samples (7/7) using IP-CMNs. These results provide insight into the use of the multifunctional nanoplatform as a useful tool for CTCs detection.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* / diagnosis
  • Cell Separation
  • Humans
  • Liver Neoplasms* / diagnosis
  • MCF-7 Cells
  • Nanoparticles*
  • Neoplastic Cells, Circulating* / pathology
  • Polyethylene Glycols
  • Protein Corona*

Substances

  • Protein Corona
  • Polyethylene Glycols