Microfilter device capable of detecting trace amounts of cancer cells in
one mL of blood

Date:
June 29, 2021
Source:
Kumamoto University
Summary:
Researchers have developed a microfilter device that can easily
separate and capture trace amounts of cancer cells in blood. The
palm-sized device is expected to contribute to the development
of new cancer diagnostic technologies based on cancer cells in
the blood, such as early detection by blood test, postoperative
management, and recurrence monitoring.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A microfilter device that can easily separate and capture trace amounts
of cancer cells in blood has been developed by a Kumamoto University
research group. The palm-sized device is expected to contribute to
the development of new cancer diagnostic technologies based on cancer
cells in the blood, such as early detection by blood test, postoperative management, and recurrence monitoring.


==========================================================================
The blood of people with cancer contains trace amounts of cancer cells
(CTCs) that have detached from the primary cancer site. However, the
amount of these cells is only a few per milliliter, whereas red or
white blood cells number in the billions, making it very difficult to
separate and detect them. Although devices for detecting CTCs have been developed in the past, they require expensive equipment and reagents,
which has been a bottleneck for their practical application.

The unique microfilter device developed by the Kumamoto University
research group can easily and inexpensively separate and capture
CTCs without any large equipment. The device is dynamically and three-dimensionally deformed by the fluid force when blood is
pumped through it. It also utilizes nucleic acid aptamers, which
bind specifically and firmly to target molecules. This enables both size-selective and affinity-selective separation and capture of tiny
cancer cells.

While evaluating the device, researchers demonstrated that it could
capture cancer cells even at a concentration of just five cancer cells
in one mL of healthy blood. Since there are about five billion (red and
white) blood cells in a mL of blood, the device proved to have a very
high detection capability.

Researchers also found that almost no blood cells were adsorbed by the microfilter, achieving a blood cell removal rate of more than 98%. It also
had a high selective detection capability. Furthermore, in a comparative evaluation, they proved that the device was able to detect cancer cells
with higher accuracy than existing devices.

"This work demonstrates that our micro-filter device can accurately detect trace amounts of cancer cells in blood," said Associate Professor Yuta Nakashima, who led the study. "We expect it will be adopted for cancer diagnosis and treatment, including for early diagnosis of cancers that
cannot be detected by imaging like CT and PET scans, postoperative
follow-up, recurrence monitoring, and tailor-made treatments. In the
future, we plan to use blood samples donated by cancer patients to verify
the practical and clinical application of the method." This research
was posted online in Talanta on 1 June 2021.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Kumamoto_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Soichiro Fukuyama, Seitaro Kumamoto, Seiya Nagano, Shoma Hitotsuya,
Keiichiro Yasuda, Yusuke Kitamura, Masaaki Iwatsuki, Hideo Baba,
Toshihiro Ihara, Yoshitaka Nakanishi, Yuta Nakashima. Detection of
cancer cells in whole blood using a dynamic deformable microfilter
and a nucleic acid aptamer. Talanta, 2021; 228: 122239 DOI:
10.1016/ j.talanta.2021.122239 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210629101228.htm

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