An Electrochemical Biosensor for Detecting Calreticulin In Situ to Assess Immunogenic Cell Death in Tumor Cells

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Nanotechnology
• Cancer Research

Background:

• Immunotherapies inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD) show promise for cancer treatment.
• Detecting ICD progression is crucial for evaluating therapeutic efficacy.
• Current methods for analyzing ICD stages are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel electrochemical biosensor for detecting calreticulin (CRT) changes during ICD.
• To analyze different stages of ICD in cellular and in vivo models.
• To provide a tool for evaluating ICD-based cancer therapies.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a porous etched zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (eZIF-8@MB) and reduced graphene oxide-multiwalled carbon nanotube (rGO-MWCNT) nanocomposite.
• Development of an electrochemical biosensor to detect cell surface CRT.
• Establishment and confirmation of ICD cellular and mouse models.
• Characterization of nanocomposite morphology and performance.
• Differential pulse voltammetry for CRT detection.

Main Results:

• The eZIF-8@MB/rGO-MWCNT nanocomposite exhibited excellent performance.
• The biosensor demonstrated rapid, sensitive, and stable detection of CRT.
• A linear relationship was observed for CRT detection in the range of 10^2 to 10^6 cells/mL.
• The biosensor successfully detected differential CRT stages in a mouse model of ICD.

Conclusions:

• The developed electrochemical biosensor enables precise analysis of ICD progression.
• This technology offers a novel tool for evaluating ICD-based cancer immunotherapies.
• The study facilitates the screening of pharmaceutical agents targeting ICD.