Abstract

Application of a Graphene Oxide Chip for Circulating Tumor Cell Isolation and Transcriptome Analysis in Prostate Cancer

Molly Kozminsky, Researcher, University of Michigan

Though commonly diagnosed by prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing, prostate cancer is the subject of conflicting opinions regarding overdiagnosis in the face of a disease that can take radically different trajectories. There remains a need for a test that better informs the severity of the disease. Those cells in the process of metastasizing, or circulating tumor cells (CTCs), may provide answers, but their study is complicated by their rarity surrounded by billions of blood cells. A highly sensitive graphene oxide (GO) based microfluidic device was used for antibody based CTC isolation. CTCs were isolated from 42 whole blood samples from prostate cancer patients using two parallel GO Chips, one for enumeration and one for RNA extraction. Immunofluorescence staining detected CTCs in all 42 samples (range: 3-166 cells/mL), with examples of both single CTCs and clusters of CTCs ranging from two to ten in number. RNA was extracted from 40 samples to determine the relative expression levels of 96 genes of interest for comparison between different patient groups of relevance. The results of this study show the potential of CTCs to answer questions that might help guide therapeutic management, allowing a more strategic approach to prostate cancer care.