Accurate Isolation of Circulating Tumor Cells via a Heterovalent DNA Framework Recognition Element-Functionalized Microfluidic Chip

Detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has provided a noninvasive and efficient approach for early diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of cancer. However, efficient capture of CTCs in the clinical environment is very challenging because of the extremely rare and heterogeneous expression of CTCs. Herein, we fabricated a multimarker microfluidic chip for the enrichment of heterogeneous CTCs from peripheral blood samples of breast cancer patients. The multimarker aptamer cocktail DNA nanostructures (TP-multimarker) were modified on a deterministic lateral displacement (DLD)-patterned microfluidic chip to enhance the capture efficiency through the size selection effect of DLD arrays and the synergistic effect of multivalent aptamers. As compared to a monovalent aptamer-modified chip, the multimarker chip exhibits enhanced capture efficiency toward both high and low epithelial cell adhesion molecule expression cell lines, and the DNA nanostructure-functionalized chip enables the accurate capture of different phenotypes of CTCs. In addition, the DNA nanoscaffold makes nucleases more accessible to the aptamers to release cells with molecular integrity and outstanding cell viability.

Automated summary

This article presents a multimarker microfluidic chip for the enrichment of heterogeneous circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in breast cancer patients. The chip utilizes a combination of size selection effect and multivalent aptamers to enhance capture efficiency. In addition, the DNA nanostructure-functionalized chip allows for the capture of different phenotypes of CTCs while maintaining molecular integrity and cell viability.