title: EGFR-Based Immunoisolation as a Recovery Target for Low-EpCAM CTC Subpopulation.
abstract: Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) play a key role in the metastasis process, as they are responsible for micrometastasis and are a valuable tool for monitoring patients in real-time. Moreover, efforts to develop new strategies for CTCs isolation and characterisation, and the translation of CTCs into clinical practice needs to overcome the limitation associated with the sole use of Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule (EpCAM) expression to purify this tumour cell subpopulation. CTCs are rare events in the blood of patients and are believed to represent the epithelial population from a primary tumour of epithelial origin, thus EpCAM immunoisolation is considered an appropriate strategy. The controversy stems from the impact that the more aggressive mesenchymal tumour phenotypes might have on the whole CTC population. In this work, we first characterised a panel of cell lines representative of tumour heterogeneity, confirming the existence of tumour cell subpopulations with restricted epithelial features and supporting the limitations of EpCAM-based technologies. We next developed customised polystyrene magnetic beads coated with antibodies to efficiently isolate the phenotypically different subpopulations of CTCs from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with metastatic cancer. Besides EpCAM, we propose Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) as an additional isolation marker for efficient CTCs detection.
authors.affiliation: INL-International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, AvdaMestre José Veiga, 4715-330 Braga, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vila
authors.affiliation: Translational Medical Oncology, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS); ComplexoHospitalarioUniversitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS); Trav. Choupana s/n 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abal
authors.affiliation: Liquid Biopsy Analysis Unit, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS); ComplexoHospitalarioUniversitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS); Trav. Choupana s/n 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Muinelo-Romay
authors.affiliation: INL-International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, AvdaMestre José Veiga, 4715-330 Braga, Portugal.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Abreu
authors.affiliation: INL-International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, AvdaMestre José Veiga, 4715-330 Braga, Portugal.|Department of Applied Physics, Technological Research Institute, Nanotechnology and Magnetism Lab-NANOMAG, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rivas
authors.affiliation: Translational Medical Oncology, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS); ComplexoHospitalarioUniversitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS); Trav. Choupana s/n 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.|Liquid Biopsy Analysis Unit, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS); ComplexoHospitalarioUniversitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS); Trav. Choupana s/n 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: López-López
authors.affiliation: Translational Medical Oncology, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS); ComplexoHospitalarioUniversitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS); Trav. Choupana s/n 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Clotilde
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Costa
mesh_terms: D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival; D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule / Q000378:metabolism*; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods*; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D059346:Magnets / Q000737:chemistry; D008297:Male; D008863:Microspheres; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D017468:Receptors, Fibroblast Growth Factor / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule; D017468:Receptors, Fibroblast Growth Factor; D066246:ErbB Receptors