Preparation of Homogeneous Nanostructures in 5 Minutes for Cancer Cells Capture

Abstract

Grafting aptamers on nanostructured substrates has shown ultrasensitivity in isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Here, we report that over 80 cm2 of homogenous nanostructured surface on glass substrates can be prepared in 5 min after one-step dry etching. The surface area was doubled; the average diameter of nanostructures is approximately 374 nm, which is more close to the nanostructures of natural extracellular matrix. Antiepithelial cell adhesion molecule aptamers grafted nanostructured glass substrates captured over 76% of PC3 cells compared to 30% of planar substrates. Bispecific aptamers cofunctionalized nanostructured substrates, however, fail to capture cancer cells probably due to the formation of heterodimers. This limitation reveals that multispecific aptamers, when applied to cell isolation, must be analyzed to exclude any potential formation of heterodimers due to complementary sequence matching.