Many low-abundance biomarkers for early detection of cancer and other diseases are invisible to mass spectrometry because they exist in body fluids in very low concentrations, are masked by high-abundance proteins such as albumin and immunoglobulins, and are very labile. To overcome these barriers, we created porous, buoyant, core–shell hydrogel nanoparticles containing novel high affinity reactive chemical baits for protein and peptide harvesting, concentration, and preservation in body fluids. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) nanoparticles were functionalized with amino-containing dyes via zero-length cross-linking amidation reactions. Nanoparticles functionalized in the core with 17 different (12 chemically novel) molecular baits showed preferential high affinities (KD < 10–11 M) for specific low-abundance protein analytes. A poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-vinylsulfonic acid) shell was added to the core particles. This shell chemistry selectively prevented unwanted entry of all size peptides derived from albumin without hindering the penetration of non-albumin small proteins and peptides. Proteins and peptides entered the core to be captured with high affinity by baits immobilized in the core. Nanoparticles effectively protected interleukin-6 from enzymatic degradation in sweat and increased the effective detection sensitivity of human growth hormone in human urine using multiple reaction monitoring analysis. Used in whole blood as a one-step, in-solution preprocessing step, the nanoparticles greatly enriched the concentration of low-molecular weight proteins and peptides while excluding albumin and other proteins above 30 kDa; this achieved a 10,000-fold effective amplification of the analyte concentration, enabling mass spectrometry (MS) discovery of candidate biomarkers that were previously undetectable.

An abnormal chromosome number, a condition known as aneuploidy, is a ubiquitous feature of cancer cells. A number of studies have shown that aneuploidy impairs cellular fitness. However, there is also evidence that aneuploidy can arise in response to specific challenges and can confer a selective advantage under certain environmental stresses. Cancer cells are likely exposed to a number of challenging conditions arising within the tumor microenvironment. To investigate whether aneuploidy may confer a selective advantage to cancer cells, we employed a controlled experimental system. We used the diploid, colorectal cancer cell line DLD1 and two DLD1-derived cell lines carrying single-chromosome aneuploidies to assess a number of cancer cell properties. Such properties, which included rates of proliferation and apoptosis, anchorage-independent growth, and invasiveness, were assessed both under standard culture conditions and under conditions of stress (i.e., serum starvation, drug treatment, hypoxia). Similar experiments were performed in diploid vs. aneuploid non-transformed human primary cells. Overall, our data show that aneuploidy can confer selective advantage to human cells cultured under non-standard conditions. These findings indicate that aneuploidy can increase the adaptability of cells, even those, such as cancer cells, that are already characterized by increased proliferative capacity and aggressive tumorigenic phenotypes.

We designed a new microfluidic device that uses pillars on the same order as the diameter of a cell (20 lm) to isolate and enrich rare cell samples from background. These cell-scale microstructures improve viability, trapping efficiency, and throughput while reducing pearl chaining. The area where cells trap on each pillar is small, such that only one or two cells trap while fluid flow carries away excess cells. We employed contactless dielectrophoresis in which a thin PDMS membrane separates the cell suspension from the electrodes, improving cell viability for off-chip collection and analysis. We compared viability and trapping efficiency of a highly aggressive Mouse Ovarian Surface Epithelial (MOSE) cell line in this 20 lm pillar device to measurements in an earlier device with the same layout but pillars of 100 lm diameter. We found that MOSE cells in the new device with 20 lm pillars had higher viability at 350 V RMS , 30 kHz, and 1.2 ml/h (control 77%, untrapped 71%, trapped 81%) than in the previous generation device (untrapped 47%, trapped 42%). The new device can trap up to 6 times more cells under the same conditions. Our new device can sort cells with a high flow rate of 2.2 ml/h and throughput of a few million cells per hour while maintaining a viable population of cells for off-chip analysis. By using the device to separate subpopulations of tumor cells while maintaining their viability at large sample sizes, this technology can be used in developing personalized treatments that target the most aggressive cancerous cells. V C 2016 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx

ObjectivesPrompt antibiotic treatment of early stage Lyme borreliosis (LB) prevents progression to severe multisystem disease. There is a clinical need to improve the diagnostic specificity of early stage Lyme assays in the period prior to the mounting of a robust serology response. Using a novel analyte harvesting nanotechnology, Nanotrap particles, we evaluated urinary Borrelia Outer surface protein A (OspA) C-terminus peptide in early stage LB before and after treatment, and in patients suspected of late stage disseminated LB.MethodWe employed Nanotrap particles to concentrate urinary OspA and used a highly specific anti-OspA monoclonal antibody (mAb) as a detector of the C-terminus peptides. We mapped the mAb epitope to a narrow specific OspA C-terminal domain OspA236-239 conserved across infectious Borrelia species but with no homology to human proteins and no cross-reactivity with relevant viral and non-Borrelia bacterial proteins. 268 urine samples from patients being evaluated for all categories of LB were collected in a LB endemic area. The urinary OspA assay, blinded to outcome, utilized Nanotrap particle pre-processing, western blotting to evaluate the OspA molecular size, and OspA peptide competition for confirmation.ResultsOspA test characteristics: sensitivity 1.7 pg/mL (lowest limit of detection), % coefficient of variation (CV) = 8 %, dynamic range 1.7–30 pg/mL. Pre-treatment, 24/24 newly diagnosed patients with an erythema migrans (EM) rash were positive for urinary OspA while false positives for asymptomatic patients were 0/117 (Chi squared p < 10−6). For 10 patients who exhibited persistence of the EM rash during the course of antibiotic therapy, 10/10 were positive for urinary OspA. Urinary OspA of 8/8 patients switched from detectable to undetectable following symptom resolution post-treatment. Specificity of the urinary OspA test for the clinical symptoms was 40/40. Specificity of the urinary OspA antigen test for later serology outcome was 87.5 % (21 urinary OspA positive/24 serology positive, Chi squared p = 4.072e−15). 41 of 100 patients under surveillance for persistent LB in an endemic area were positive for urinary OspA protein.ConclusionsOspA urinary shedding was strongly linked to concurrent active symptoms (e.g. EM rash and arthritis), while resolution of these symptoms after therapy correlated with urinary conversion to OspA negative.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-015-0701-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Hydrogel biomarker capturing microparticles were evaluated as a biomaterial to amplify the sensitivity of urine testing for infectious disease proteins. Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted by ticks. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment of Lyme disease reduces complications including arthritis and cardiac involvement. While a urine test is highly desirable for Lyme disease screening, this has been difficult to accomplish because the antigen is present at extremely low concentrations, below the detection limit of clinical immunoassays. N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAm) -acrylic acid (AAc) microparticles were covalently functionalized with amine containing dyes via amidation of carboxylic groups present in the microparticles. The dyes act as affinity baits towards protein analytes in solution. NIPAm/AAc microparticles functionalized with acid black 48 (AB48) mixed with human urine, achieved close to one hundred percent capture and 100 percent extraction yield of the target antigen. In urine, microparticles sequestered and concentrated Lyme disease antigens 100 fold, compared to the absence of microparticles, achieving an immunoassay detection sensitivity of 700 pg/mL in 10mL urine. Antigen present in a single infected tick could be readily detected following microparticle sequestration. Hydrogel microparticles functionalized with high affinity baits can dramatically increase the sensitivity of urinary antigen tests for infectious diseases such as Lyme disease. These findings justify controlled clinical studies evaluating the sensitivity and precision of Lyme antigen testing in urine.

A common problem with cancer treatment is the development of treatment resistance and tumor recurrence that result from treatments that kill most tumor cells yet leave behind aggressive cells to repopulate. Presented here is a microfluidic device that can be used to isolate tumor subpopulations to optimize treatment selection. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a phenomenon where particles are polarized by an electric field and move along the electric field gradient. Different cell subpopulations have different DEP responses depending on their bioelectrical phenotype, which, we hypothesize, correlate with aggressiveness. We have designed a microfluidic device in which a region containing posts locally distorts channel of the electric field created by an AC voltage across a microfluidic channel and which forces cells toward the posts through DEP. This force is balanced with a simultaneous drag force from fluid motion that pulls cells away from the posts. We have shown that by adjusting the drag force, cells with aggressive phenotypes are influenced more by the DEP force and trap on posts while others flow through the chip unaffected. Utilizing single-cell trapping on cell-sized posts by a drag-DEP force balance, we show that separation of very similar cell subpopulations may be achieved, a result that was previously impossible with DEP alone. Separated subpopulations maintain high viability downstream, and remain in a native state, without fluorescent labeling. These cells can then be cultured to help select a therapy that kills aggressive subpopulations equally or better than the bulk of the tumor, mitigating resistance and recurrence.

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Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are aggressive subpopulations with increased stem‐like properties. CSCs are usually resistant to most standard therapies and are responsible for tumor repropagation. Similar to normal stem cells, isolation of CSCs is challenging due to the lack of reliable markers. Antigen‐based sorting of CSCs usually requires staining with multiple markers, making the experiments complicated, expensive, and sometimes unreliable. Here, we study the feasibility of using dielectrophoresis (DEP) for isolation of glioblastoma cells with increased stemness. We culture a glioblastoma cell line in the form of neurospheres as an in vitro model for glioblastoma stem cells. We demonstrate that spheroid forming cells have higher expression of stem cell marker, nestin. Next, we show that dielectric properties of neurospheres change as a result of changing culture conditions. Our results indicate that spheroid forming cells need higher voltages to experience the same DEP force magnitude compared to normal monolayer cultures of glioblastoma cell line. This study confirms the possibility of using DEP to isolate glioblastoma stem cells.