Issue 8, 2016

Precision microfilters as an all in one system for multiplex analysis of circulating tumor cells

Abstract

Enumeration of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from cancer patient blood is an established diagnostic assay used to evaluate patient status as a singleplex test. However, in the coming age of personalized medicine, multiplex analysis of patient CTCs, including proteomic and genomic techniques, will have to be integrated with CTC isolation platform technologies. Advancements in microfabrication have demonstrated that CTCs can be isolated and analyzed using microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices. However, to date, most microfluidic devices are either still in the development phase, not applicable to all clinical tests, or are not commercially available. To overcome these discrepancies, we describe an all-in-one device for the isolation and multiplexing of clinically applicable CTC assays. Microfilters present an ideal lab-on-a-chip platform for analysis of CTCs as non-toxic and inert materials allow for a multitude of tests from cell growth through clinical staining techniques, all without background interference. Lithographically fabricated microfilters, can be made with high porosity, precise pore dimensions, arrayed pore distribution, and optimized for CTC size-based isolation. In this study we describe microfilter use in isolation and in situ analysis of CTCs using multiple sequential techniques including culture, FISH, histopathological analysis, H&E staining, photobleaching and re-staining. Further, as a proof of principle, we then describe the ability to quantitatively release patient derived CTCS from the microfilters for potential use in downstream genomic/proteomic analysis.

Graphical abstract: Precision microfilters as an all in one system for multiplex analysis of circulating tumor cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Oct 2015
Accepted
07 Jan 2016
First published
11 Jan 2016
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 6405-6414

Author version available

Precision microfilters as an all in one system for multiplex analysis of circulating tumor cells

D. L. Adams, R. K. Alpaugh, S. S. Martin, M. Charpentier, S. Chumsri, M. Cristofanilli, D. K. Adams, O. V. Makarova, P. Zhu, S. Li, C. Tang and S. Stefansson, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 6405 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA21524B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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