Spaceship-like disc detects colon cancer with sound-driven droplet vibration
In a new study published in Science Advances, the scientists introduced an innovative spaceship-like disc that allows acoustic separation and concentration of exosomes and nucleotide detection, or shortly ASCENDx.
Colorectal cancer starts in the colon or the rectum, so these cancers can also be called colon cancer or rectal cancer, depending on where they start. According to the available data in the USA, there were 142,462 new cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed in 2019, resulting in 51,896 fatalities. The total annual medical cost of colorectal cancer care in 2020 was $24.3 billion. It’s crucial to note that cancer diagnosis methods can be invasive and expensive. That is why it is not surprising that the news about a new platform caused interest. This new method could be used for quick and precise tests in healthcare, from detailed bioassays to cancer detection. It’s faster and doesn’t harm delicate biological particles.
This new diagnostic platform presented in the journal Science Advances uses sound waves to spin an individual drop of water up to 6,000 revolutions per minute; why this speed? It separates susceptible biological particles within samples to enable new diagnostics based on exosomes. As explained beyond that, the droplet begins leaning and runs the risk of spitting water out.
According to the study published in 2020, extensive research has been conducted on using exosomes as biomarkers for cancer detection. They are very small extracellular vesicles released by all cell types, including tumor cells, and they can be harvested from blood, urine, or saliva and analyzed for tumor-relevant mutations.
How does this new platform work?
A very light disc placed on top of the spinning drop has engraved pathways equipped with star-shaped particles that are undetectable by the human eye and tailored to enable the label-free detection of specific disease-relevant particles of previously mentioned exosomes. To maintain its boundaries, the device employs a water droplet confined within a silicon ring, commonly used in microfluidic technologies. The researchers then placed a sound wave generator on each side of the device and slanted them so that sound waves travel through the platform to enter the droplet. The generators create surface acoustic waves, stabilizing and spinning the droplet rapidly. As a result, exosomes migrate to the channels’ ends, while smaller proteins and contaminants are left behind.
Specific markers for colorectal cancer
To detect the presence of specific biomarkers, the researchers turned to technology, which Tuan Vo-Dinh, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Chemistry at Duke, developed. Four years ago, led by Tuan Vo-Dinh, a novel method developed for detecting multiple specific microRNAs, short RNA molecules that regulate gene expression and are linked to various diseases, was presented in the journal Analyst. According to the study, they used silver-plated gold nanostars as nanosensors named “inverse molecular sentinels,” to detect target microRNAs. So, the two technologies united. “Our platform detected biomarkers for colorectal cancer patients with results that strongly correlate with the gold standard for this type of diagnostic but with much less time and effort required,” said Aidan Canning, a Ph.D. student working in the Vo-Dinh laboratory and the study’s author. As he said, this is a marriage of two technologies.
Importance of ASCENDx
As stated in the study, it overcomes existing limitations in exosome-based molecular diagnostics. It holds a powerful position for future biomedical research, precision medicine, and point-of-care medical diagnostics, and the technology can discriminate between cancer and control groups with 95.8 percent sensitivity and 100 percent selectivity. “Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of multiplexed, amplification-free direct detection of miRNA biomarkers from acoustically enriched patient plasma samples,” the scientists concluded. This is still in the early stages, so those involved are considering innovative approaches to combine these platforms with other technological advances, potentially leading to new opportunities for research.
Source: Interesting Engineering
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Spaceship-like disc detects colon cancer with sound-driven droplet vibration