Endonuclease-responsive aptamer-functionalized hydrogel coating for sequential catch and release of cancer cells.

Shihui Li, Niancao Chen, Zhaoyang Zhang, Yong Wang

Program of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-3222, USA.

Biomaterials 2013 Jan

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Rare circulating tumor cells are a promising biomarker for the detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of cancer. However, it remains a challenge to develop biomedical devices for specific catch and nondestructive release of circulating tumor cells. The purpose of this study was to explore a unique system for cell catch and release by using aptamer-functionalized hydrogels and restriction endonucleases. The results show that the hydrogel coating was highly resistant to nonspecific cell binding with ~5-15 cells/mm(2) on the hydrogel surface. In contrast, under the same condition, the aptamer-functionalized hydrogel coating could catch target cancer cells with a density over 1000 cells/mm(2). When the hydrogel coating was further treated with the restriction endonucleases, the bound cells were released from the hydrogel coating because of the endonuclease-mediated sequence-specific hydrolysis of the aptamer sequences. The release efficiency reached ~99%. Importantly, ~98% of the released cells maintained viability. Taken together, this study demonstrates that it is promising to apply endonuclease-responsive aptamer-functionalized hydrogels as a coating material to develop medical devices for specific catch and nondestructive release of rare circulating tumor cells. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Shihui Li, Niancao Chen, Zhaoyang Zhang, Yong Wang. Endonuclease-responsive aptamer-functionalized hydrogel coating for sequential catch and release of cancer cells. Biomaterials. 2013 Jan;34(2):460-9