title: Aptamer-functionalized nano/micro-materials for clinical diagnosis: isolation, release and bioanalysis of circulating tumor cells.
abstract: Detection of rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood is a challenging, but necessary, task in order to diagnose early onset of metastatic cancer and to monitor treatment efficacy. Over the last decade, step-up produced aptamers have attracted great attention in clinical diagnosis. They have offered great promise for a broader range of cell-specific recognition and isolation. In particular, aptamer-functionalized magnetic particles for selective extraction of target CTCs have shown reduced damage to cells and relatively simple operation. Also, efforts to develop aptamer-functionalized microchannel/microstructures able to efficiently isolate target CTCs are continuing, and these efforts have brought more advanced geometrically designed substrates. Various aptamer-mediated cell release techniques are being developed to enable subsequent biological studies. This article reviews some of these advances in aptamer-functionalized nano/micro-materials for CTCs isolation and methods for releasing captured CTCs from aptamer-functionalized surfaces. Biological studies of CTCs after release are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. xudanke@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yaju
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Danke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Weihong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000378:metabolism*; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D001781:Blood Component Removal / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide; D001672:Biocompatible Materials