Multifunctional microfluidic chip for cancer diagnosis and treatment

Abstract

Microfluidic chip is not a chip in the traditional sense. It is technologies that control fluids at the micro level. As a burgeoning biochip, microfluidic chips integrate multiple disciplines, including physiology, pathology, cell biology, biophysics, engineering mechanics, mechanical design, materials science, and so on. The application of microfluidic chip has shown tremendous promise in the field of cancer therapy in the past three decades. Various types of cell and tissue cultures, including 2D cell culture, 3D cell culture and tissue organoid culture could be performed on microfluidic chips. Patient-derived cancer cells and tissues can be cultured on microfluidic chips in a visible, controllable, and high-throughput manner, which greatly advances the process of personalized medicine. Moreover, the functionality of microfluidic chip is greatly expanding due to the customizable nature. In this review, we introduce its application in developing cancer preclinical models, detecting cancer biomarkers, screening anti-cancer drugs, exploring tumor heterogeneity and producing nano-drugs. We highlight the functions and recent development of microfluidic chip to provide references for advancing cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Microfluidic chips: recent advances, critical strategies in design, applications and future perspectives

“…Patient-derived cancer cells and tissues can be cultured on microfluidic chips in a visible, controllable, and high-throughput manner, which greatly advances the process of personalized medicine. Moreover, the functionality of microfluidic chip is greatly expanding due to the customizable nature (Guo et al 2021 ). In addition, it has been found economical as it enables the processing of trace amount of samples such as cells from patient biopsies, provides a high level of automation, and allows the setup of complex models for cancer studies (Mathur et al 2020 ).…”

Microfluidics applications for high-throughput single cell sequencing

“…Single cell research allows the molecular differentiation of all cell types in the complex population combinations, and it is a potential way to better understand tumor heterogeneity [ 126 ]. With inherent advantages such as small sample volume, high sensitivity and fast processing time, microfluidics is well-positioned to serve as a promising platform for applications in oncology [ 127 ].…”

Application of microfluidic chips in anticancer drug screening

“…On-chip cell culture can meet the analysis and monitoring requirement of high-throughput , high-content drug and cell interaction. [65] In practice, Lin et al developed a series of 2D and 3D microgel chips with different functions, taking advantage of the micro-machining technology of permeable hydrogel materials, and applied them to localized culture of different types of cells, such as suspended leukemic cells (NB4), adherent hepatoma cells (HepG2), and fibrous cells (L929). [66] Finally, the co-culture of different kinds of cells was realized and good results were obtained.…”