Frosted Slides Decorated with Silica Nanowires for Detecting Circulating Tumor Cells from Prostate Cancer Patients

Abstract

Developing low-cost and highly efficient nanobiochips are important for liquid biopsies, real-time monitoring, and precision medicine. By in situ growth of silica nanowires on a commercial frosted slide, we develop a biochip for effective circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detection after modifying epithelial cell adhesion molecule antibody (anti-EpCAM). The biochip shows the specificity and high capture efficiency of 85.4 ± 8.3% for prostate cancer cell line (PC-3). The microsized frosted slides and silica nanowires allow enhanced efficiency in capture EpCAM positive cells by synergistic topographic interactions. And the capture efficiency of biochip increased with the increase of silica nanowires length on frosted slide. The biochip shows that micro/nanocomposite structures improve the capture efficiency of PC-3 more than 70% toward plain slide. Furthermore, the nanobiochip has been successfully applied to identify CTCs from whole blood specimens of prostate cancer patients. Thus, this frosted slide-based biochip may provide a cheap and effective way of clinical monitoring of CTCs.

High‐Aspect‐Ratio Nanostructured Surfaces as Biological Metamaterials

“…Cells can be captured onto a nanostructured surface are then subsequently released for analysis. Antibody‐coated silicon nanowires, either grown stochastically on glass slides or patterned using nanosphere lithography, have been used to capture circulating‐tumor cells from blood samples. Porous silicon nanowires, grown inside microfluidic channels, have been used to capture an avian influenza virus (H5N2) with an efficiency of roughly 50% .…”

“…At the cell membrane, they can modulate the ability of cells to form focal adhesions, complex multi‐protein assemblies that span the membrane and provide a physical anchor between the cell and the outer environment . This effect may be particularly pertinent on substrates with nanoscale features (geometry or porosity) that are on a similar length scale to filopodia (nanoscale, environment‐sensing cell protrusions) or integrin receptors (transmembrane proteins that facilitate external binding) …”

“…Solution‐based growth methods include: electrodeposition, which has been used to deposit iridium oxide nanostructures on microelectrode arrays, along with gold nanoelectrodes; the hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate, which has been used to grow silica nanowires; and hydrothermal synthesis . The latter uses the combination of high pressure and/or temperature to trigger the formation of nanostructures, including zinc nanorods and titanium/titanium oxide nanotopographies .…”

On the Interaction between 1D Materials and Living Cells

“…Si NWs prepared by chemical/ion etching [ 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ] or their conjugates with thermo-responsive polymers [ 61 , 62 ] have found applications for the capture of tumour cells with extremely high yields (higher than 80%). Remarkably, Cui et al [ 56 ] demonstrated a wet-chemistry in-situ growth of silica NWs functionalized with epithelial cell adhesion antibody (anti-EpCAM) to bind circulating tumour cells, achieving a binding efficiency up to 85.4 ± 8.3% for prostate cancer cell line (PC-3). Importantly, such functionalized silica NWs enhanced the capture efficiency of PC-3 more than 70% with respect to the corresponding flat surface [ 63 ] ( Figure 3 a–c).…”

Antibody-modified reduced graphene oxide film for circulating tumor cell detection in early-stage prostate cancer patients

“…Recent advances have demonstrated that the efficient capture of CTCs can be achieved using nanostructured biointerface materials designed with a synergistic combination principle of structure match and specic molecular recognition. [8][9][10][11] Among these, Hyeun et al found an effective approach (sensitivity: 73% AE 32.4 at 3-5 cells per mL of blood) to isolate and release CTCs from blood samples of pancreatic, breast and lung cancer patients, using functionalised graphene oxide nanosheets on a patterned gold surface. 12,13 On the basis of these advanced achievements, we investigate whether early stage screening of clinical PCa with PSA levels of 4-10 ng mL À1 can be assisted through the detection of CTCs to help us improve the diagnostic efficacy of PSA.…”