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Novel Peptide-Based Magnetic Nanoparticle for Mesenchymal Circulating Tumor Cells Detection
Fei Jia1,2, Yuehua Wang1,2, Zhiguo Fang1,2
1CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.
Abstract:
The monitoring of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has recently served as a promising approach for assessing prognosis and evaluating cancer treatment. We have already developed a CTCs enrichment platform by EpCAM recognition peptide-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (EP@MNPs). However, considering heterogeneous CTCs generated through epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), mesenchymal CTCs would be missed with this method. Notably, N-cadherin, overexpressed on mesenchymal CTCs, can facilitate the migration of cancer cells. Hence, we screened a novel peptide targeting N-cadherin, NP, and developed a new CTCs isolation approach via NP@MNPs to complement EpCAM methods' deficiencies. NP@MNPs had a high capture efficiency (about 85%) of mesenchymal CTCs from spiked human blood. Subsequently, CTCs were captured and sequenced at the single-cell level via NP@MNPs and EP@MNPs, RNA profiles of which showed that epithelial and mesenchymal subgroups could be distinguished. Here, a novel CTCs isolation platform laid the foundation for mesenchymal CTCs isolation and subsequent molecular analysis.
