Natural Fish Trap-Like Nanocage for Label-Free Capture of Circulating Tumor Cells

Abstract

Nanomaterials have achieved several breakthroughs in the capture of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) over the past decades. However, artificial fabrication of label-free nanomaterials used for high-efficiency CTC capture is still a challenge. Through billions of years of evolution and natural selection, various complicated and precise hierarchical structures are developed. Here, a novel fish trap-like “nanocage” structure derived from the natural Chrysanthemum pollen is reported and a nanocage-featured film for the label-free capture of CTCs and CTC clusters is constructed. The nanocage-featured film effectively captures 92% rare cancer cells with a broad spectrum of cancer types, due to the synergistic effect of nanocage-CTC filopodia matching, high contact area, and strong adhesion force between the cancer cells and the nanocage. Furthermore, the nanocage-featured film successfully detects CTCs and CTC clusters in 2 or 4 mL blood taken from 21 cancer patients (stages I–IV) suffering from various types of cancers. This novel, abundant, and economical fish trap-like “nanocage” may provide new perspectives for the application of natural nanomaterials in clinical CTC capture and analysis.