Session: General Poster:

This topic describes the development of nanoscale platform which can isolate the circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from head and neck cancer (HNC) patients’ blood samples. The nanosystem is based on modified cellulose NanoCrystal (CNCs), biobased materials such as cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), and silk protein that has been functionalized with CTC capturing biomarker. By modifying multiple hydroxyl groups along the molecular backbone of CNCs with Fe₃O₄ nanoparicles (NPs) coordination, anti epithelial cell adhesion molecule antibody (anti EPCAM), and transferrin (Tf) by covalent conjugation. We characterized these CNC-derived capturing systems using UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We observed that nanocage systems, particularly those composed of CNCs, were stable in human plasma, and were able to selectively detect CTCs from patient’s blood sample at 85% capture efficiency of standard CTC detection platforms (such as OncoDiscover®). In this work, we demonstrated the strategy to render a repertoire of biobased, hydrophilic material platform which can capture and isolate CTCs from cancer patient blood. We envision that these bio-based CTC capturing platform has immense implication in ‘liquid biopsy’ for isolation and enumeration of CTCs for early detection of metastasis in cancer, and for point-of-care approach for cancer detection and prevention.

Mohiuddin Quadir

North Dakota State University

Appearances