Self-Assembling Peptide-Based Multifunctional Nanofibers for Electrochemical Identification of Breast Cancer Stem-like Cells

Abstract

Cancer stem-like cells are closely related with the development and metastasis of tumors. Herein, an electrochemical method is proposed to identify stem-like cells in breast tumor. The core concept of the method is the use of multifunctional nanofibers (MNFs), which are synthesized through facile self-assembly of peptide probes. MNFs can perform three functions, specifically targeting surface biomarker to identify stem-like cells, recruiting silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to generate electrochemical signals, and providing large amounts of reaction sites to amplify signals. Specially, breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) are first captured by nucleolin aptamer immobilized on the electrode surface and then selectively recognized by MNFs through the binding with CD44, thereby offering a large number of azide groups for signal labeling. By tracing electrochemical signals from MNF-recruited AgNPs, the method demonstrates to detect target cells as low as 6 cells/mL within a wide linear range from 10 to 5 × 105 cells/mL. Moreover, the method can not only recognize BCSCs with high selectivity in complex environment but also monitor drug-induced stemness changes with high sensitivity, providing promising prospective clinic applications in the future.

Supramolecular peptide nano-assemblies for cancer diagnosis and therapy: from molecular design to material synthesis and function-specific applications

“…Recently, peptide nano-assemblies based biosensor platforms, such as fluorescent [ 96 ], electrochemical [ 97 – 99 ] biosensors, have been fabricated and used for the detection of cancer cells. For instance, Behi et al .…”

“…In another case, Tang and co-workers reported the fabrication of electrochemical biosensors based on self-assembled peptide nanofibers for detecting breast cancer stem-like cells (BCSCs) [ 99 ]. Figure 10 d shows the peptide nano-assemblies based fabrication of biosensor platform and sensing mechanism.…”

Nanomaterial‐Based Electrochemical Sensors: Mechanism, Preparation, and Application in Biomedicine

“…Tang et al proposed sensitive electrochemical techniques to detect breast cancer cells by multifunctional self‐assembling peptide nanofibers. [ 89 ] In addition, Suhito et al proposed a multifunctional platform that could both monitor cell viability without damaging the cells and simultaneously evaluate the anticancer effects of curcumin in a brain tumor model. [ 90 ]…”

Electrochemical Nanobiosensors for Detection of Breast Cancer Biomarkers

“…Cancer stem cells were discovered by Al-Hajj in 2003 [ 140 ]. Cancer stem cells were detected using a nanobiosensor with a thiolated aptamer against the CD44 surface protein immobilized on GE via chemisorption [ 141 ]. After stem-like cells were captured on the electrode surface, the electrode was modified by a self-assembled peptide-based multifunctional nanofiber containing CD44 binding protein and –N 3 groups, which were subsequently used for the clicking of AgNPs applied as a redox probe for an electrochemical signal generation.…”

“…The LOD of the device was 6 cells/mL, and the device offered a wide linear range (from 10 cells/mL to 5 × 10 5 cells/mL). The selectivity of the device was successfully proved by the analysis of three different cancerous cell lines [ 141 ] (Approach 2).…”