title: Towards an optimal and unbiased approach for tumor cell isolation.
abstract: Our current understanding of clinical significance or the lack thereof of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is biased by the technology used to isolate these rare cells. Despite the presence of a vast number of academic and commercial technologies, the lack of a standardized and optimized platform has been widely noted. We present a negative enrichment approach, integrating WBC depletion and chemical-free RBC depletion in the same setup without the need for centrifugation, washing or multiple sample handling steps. This approach achieves an average of >90 % recovery of spiked tumor cells and >99 % total WBC depletion in whole blood across multiple cell lines, in a simple and easy-to-use assay. The results presented herein and ongoing improvements aim to fulfill the need for a highly reliable, unbiased, standardized, and optimized CTC isolation platform, using component technologies that are validated for cell isolation.
authors.affiliation: BioElectronics Programme, Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 1 Science Park Road, Singapore, 117528, Singapore. sajay001@e.ntu.edu.sg.|Division of Microelectronics, School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore. sajay001@e.ntu.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Bhuvanendran Nair Gourikutty
authors.initials: BNG
authors.lastname: Sajay
authors.affiliation: BioElectronics Programme, Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 1 Science Park Road, Singapore, 117528, Singapore.
authors.forename: Chia-Pin
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: BioElectronics Programme, Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 1 Science Park Road, Singapore, 117528, Singapore.
authors.forename: Hamizah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.affiliation: BioElectronics Programme, Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 1 Science Park Road, Singapore, 117528, Singapore.
authors.forename: Wong Chee
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Division of Microelectronics, School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore.
authors.forename: Poenar Daniel
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Puiu
authors.affiliation: BioElectronics Programme, Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 11 Science Park Road, Singapore, 117685, Singapore. abdurr@ime.a-star.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Abdur Rub Abdur
authors.initials: ARA
authors.lastname: Rahman
mesh_terms: D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D018189:Immunomagnetic Separation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000166:cytology; D055616:Microtechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000473:pathology*; D013594:Syringes