Differential behavior of EGFR-overexpressing cancer cells through aptamer-functionalized micropores

Abstract

Circulating tumor cell detection is one important avenue for early cancer diagnosis. A differential solid-state micropore approach is reported that detects a very low number of tumor cells from blood samples. One micropore is functionalized with an aptamer molecule specific to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), known to be overexpressed on cancer cell surfaces, whereas the other micropore is bare. The translocation behavior of tumor cells is seen to be distinctly different from normal counterparts and control when passed through functionalized micropore. The differentiation stems from the selective interactions between the aptamer molecules and overexpressed EGFR on the tumor cells. Normal cells, on the other hand, do not show selective interaction with aptamers. As a result, cancer cells are distinguished from normal cells just by looking at the translocation data from an aptamer-functionalized micropore. The interactions between the cells and the aptamer in a micropore provide a detection modality that interrogates each cell.