Profiling Protein Expression in Circulating Tumour Cells Using Microfluidic Western Blotting

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2017 Mar 24

PMID 28332571

Citations 98

Authors

Elly Sinkala

Elodie Sollier-Christen

Corinne Renier

Elisabet Rosas-Canyelles

James Che

Kyra Heirich

Todd A Duncombe

Julea Vlassakis

Kevin A Yamauchi

Haiyan Huang

Stefanie S Jeffrey

Amy E Herr

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are rare tumour cells found in the circulatory system of certain cancer patients. The clinical and functional significance of CTCs is still under investigation. Protein profiling of CTCs would complement the recent advances in enumeration, transcriptomic and genomic characterization of these rare cells and help define their characteristics. Here we describe a microfluidic western blot for an eight-plex protein panel for individual CTCs derived from estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer patients. The precision handling and analysis reveals a capacity to assay sparingly available patient-derived CTCs, a biophysical CTC phenotype more lysis-resistant than breast cancer cell lines, a capacity to report protein expression on a per CTC basis and two statistically distinct GAPDH subpopulations within the patient-derived CTCs. Targeted single-CTC proteomics with the capacity for archivable, multiplexed protein analysis offers a unique, complementary taxonomy for understanding CTC biology and ascertaining clinical impact.

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