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Biomimetic recognition strategy for efficient capture and release of circulating tumor cells

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Abstract

Efficient capture and release of circulating tumor cells play an important role in cancer diagnosis, but the limited affinity of monovalent adhesion molecules in existing capture technologies leads to low capture efficiency, and the captured cells are difficult to be separated. Inspired by the phenomenon that the long tentacles of jellyfish contain multiple adhesion domains and can effectively capture moving food, we have constructed a biomimetic recognition strategy to capture and release tumor cells. In details, gold-coated magnetic nanomaterials (Au@Fe3O4 NPs) were first prepared and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, UV-vis absorption spectra, and Zeta potential. Then, the DNA primers modified on Au@Fe3O4 nanoparticles can be extended to form many radialized DNA products by rolling circle amplification. These long DNA products resemble jellyfish tentacles and contain multivalent aptamers that can be extended into three dimensions to increase the accessibility of target cells, resulting in efficient, simple, rapid, and specific cells capture. The capture efficiencies are no less than 92% in PBS buffer and 77% in blood. Subsequently, DNase I was selected to degrade biomimetic tentacles to release the captured tumor cells with high viability. This release strategy can not only improve cell viability, but also reduce a tedious release process and unnecessary costs. We believe that the proposed method can be expanded for the capture and release of various tumor cells and will inspire the development of circulating tumor cells analysis.

Graphical abstract

A biomimetic recognition strategy for capture and release of circulating tumor cells has been developed. This method modified specific P1 DNA primers on Au@Fe3O4 NPs to form many radialized DNA products by rolling circle amplification. These products can efficiently capture CTCs since it contains multiple aptamers with a multivalent binding capacity. This make it a promising tool to capture and release of other tumor cells, and will inspire the development of CTC analysis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81672570 and 81370926 to Yang Xiang).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, People’s Republic of China

    Ji Zheng, Dayong Li, Jin Jiao, Chengjie Duan, Youjing Gong, Hai Shi & Yang Xiang

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, People’s Republic of China

    Zhongyun Wang

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  1. Ji Zheng
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  2. Dayong Li
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  3. Jin Jiao
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  4. Chengjie Duan
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  7. Zhongyun Wang
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Correspondence to Hai Shi, Zhongyun Wang or Yang Xiang.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Nanomaterials for biomedical imaging and targeting

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Zheng, J., Li, D., Jiao, J. et al. Biomimetic recognition strategy for efficient capture and release of circulating tumor cells. Microchim Acta 188, 220 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04856-4

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