Dual-Aptamer-Targeted Immunomagnetic Nanoparticles to Accurately Explore the Correlations between Circulating Tumor Cells and Gastric Cancer

It has been acknowledged that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are promising biomarkers in liquid biopsy for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. However, the relationship between the CTC number and gastric cancer has scarcely been quantitatively investigated. Moreover, the single criterion of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) antibody/aptamer to specifically recognize epithelial CTCs cannot be universally applied for clinical applications, as it fails to recognize EpCAM-negative CTCs. Herein, we propose simple, low-cost, dual-aptamer (EpCAM and PTK7)-modified immunomagnetic Fe₃O₄ particles (IMNs) for efficient capture of heterogeneous CTCs and downstream analysis in gastric cancer patients. High PTK7 expression and a significant negative correlation between PTK7 and EpCAM expression were observed in primary gastric cancer tissues. Taking MGC-803 and BGC-823 cells as CTC models, the obtained dual-targeting IMNs could distinguishably recognize these cells with both high or low EpCAM and PTK7 expressions, which enhanced the accuracy of CTC recognition in gastric cancer. More than 95% of these two kinds of cells could be captured within 20 min of incubation, which was significantly more efficient than that of single EpCAM- or PTK7-modified IMNs. With this strategy, as low as five CTCs could be captured from phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), a cell mixture containing THP-1 cells, and lysed blood mediums. Moreover, the obtained CTCs can be used for subsequent gene analysis. Finally, the fabricated IMNs were successfully applied for CTC capture in 1.0 mL of peripheral blood samples from patients with gastric cancer. The detected CTC numbers in 72 participants were found to have close relationships with chemotherapy sensitivity, diagnosis, stage, and distant metastasis of patients. This work provides important references for further investigations on CTC-related diagnosis and individualized treatment.