title: An Integrated Platform for Isolation, Processing, and Mass Spectrometry-based Proteomic Profiling of Rare Cells in Whole Blood.
abstract: Isolation and molecular characterization of rare cells (e.g. circulating tumor and stem cells) within biological fluids and tissues has significant potential in clinical diagnostics and personalized medicine. The present work describes an integrated platform of sample procurement, preparation, and analysis for deep proteomic profiling of rare cells in blood. Microfluidic magnetophoretic isolation of target cells spiked into 1 ml of blood at the level of 1000-2000 cells/ml, followed by focused acoustics-assisted sample preparation has been coupled with one-dimensional PLOT-LC-MS methodology. The resulting zeptomole detection sensitivity enabled identification of ∼4000 proteins with injection of the equivalent of only 100-200 cells per analysis. The characterization of rare cells in limited volumes of physiological fluids is shown by the isolation and quantitative proteomic profiling of first MCF-7 cells spiked into whole blood as a model system and then two CD133+ endothelial progenitor and hematopoietic cells in whole blood from volunteers.
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts; §Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Siyang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts; ¶Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts;
authors.forename: Brian D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Plouffe
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts; §Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Arseniy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Belov
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts;
authors.forename: Somak
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts; §Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Xianzhe
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts; ¶Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts;
authors.forename: Shashi K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Murthy
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts; §Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts a.ivanov@neu.edu b.karger@neu.edu.
authors.forename: Barry L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Karger
authors.affiliation: From the ‡Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts; §Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts a.ivanov@neu.edu b.karger@neu.edu.
authors.forename: Alexander R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ivanov
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D044085:Microfluidics; D040901:Proteomics; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*