Recognition and capture of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma cells using aptamer-conjugated quantum dots and magnetic particles

Abstract

Metastatic recurrence is the most important biological behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the main cause of treatment failure. Early prediction of metastasis is currently impossible due to the lack of specific molecular probes to recognize metastatic HCC cells. Aptamers have recently emerged as promising potential molecular probes for biomedical applications. Two well-matched HCC cell lines including HCCLM9 with high metastatic potential and MHCC97-L with low metastatic potential, were used to select aptamers for HCC metastasis. With a whole-cell-SELEX strategy, in which HCCLM9 cells were used as target cells and MHCC97-L cells as subtractive cell, 6 potential aptamers had been generated. Detailed study on selected aptamer LY-1 revealed that it could bind metastatic HCC cells with high affinity and specificity, not only in cells culture and animal models of HCC metastasis, but also in clinical HCC specimens. Moreover, the aptamer LY-1 and magnetic particles conjugates could efficiently capture the HCC cells from complex mixture whole blood. These studies demonstrated that this HCC specific aptamer LY-1 could be a promising molecular probe to recognize metastatic HCC cells.

Multifunctional Magnetic Particles for Combined Circulating Tumor Cells Isolation and Cellular Metabolism Detection

“…[1] For magnetic separation, through tuning the surface chemical property of magnetic particles, various biological targets ranging from nano- to micro- scale can be selectively captured for therapeutic and diagnostic studies. In addition, the magnetic property of particles is crucial for the throughput and yield of separation in real applications.…”

“…In addition, the magnetic property of particles is crucial for the throughput and yield of separation in real applications. Particularly, the functionalized magnetic particles can be designed to specifically bind biomolecules for either immuno-isolation of living cells [1e, 2] or molecular profiling and detection. [1a, 3] Meanwhile, laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI MS) has become a fundamental tool for molecular analysis by molecule weights (MW) allowing facile sample preparation, fast analytical experiments, and accurate structural identification.…”

“…Particularly, the functionalized magnetic particles can be designed to specifically bind biomolecules for either immuno-isolation of living cells [1e, 2] or molecular profiling and detection. [1a, 3] Meanwhile, laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI MS) has become a fundamental tool for molecular analysis by molecule weights (MW) allowing facile sample preparation, fast analytical experiments, and accurate structural identification. [4] In LDI MS, magnetic particles can not only serve as chemo-specific materials for enrichment of target proteome/peptidome during sample pre-treatment, [1a, 3a–c] but also facilitate the LDI process for detection without the use of common organic matrix.…”

Nanoparticle-conjugated aptamer targeting hnRNP A2/B1 can recognize multiple tumor cells and inhibit their proliferation

“…), and inorganic nanoparticles (magnetic nanoparticles [33], silica nanoparticles [34], quantum dots [35], graphene oxide nanosheets [36], carbon tubes, etc.). Aptamerconjugated liposomes, micelles, organic polymeric nanoparticles have good biocompatibility and biodegradability for therapy, well inorganic nanomaterials provide unique optical, electronic, and magnetic properties, and are good indicators for targeting process.…”

Oligonucleotide Aptamers: New Tools for Targeted Cancer Therapy

“…In the last decade, many aptamers targeting cell surface biomarkers have been developed through the advancement of both the protein- and/or cell-based SELEX technologies (see Table 2 for detailed list). These aptamers have been extensively studied for diagnosis and/or treatment of hematological malignancies, 7,23,49 lung, 52,53,54 liver, 55 breast, 56,57 ovarian, 58 brain, 59,60 colorectal, 61 and pancreatic cancers, 46 as well as for identification and characterization of CSCs. 34,62 …”