Identification of dual therapeutic targets assisted by in situ automatous DNA assembly for combined therapy in breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease among women worldwide. Nowadays, combined therapy against several therapeutic targets is becoming a promising treatment to enhance the survival rate of the patients with some lethal subtypes, and also proposes high demand on the discrimination of the co-existing targets in breast cancer. In this work, we designed in situ automatous DNA assembly reaction and applied it for the simultaneous identification of dual therapeutic targets using electrochemical techniques. Taking triple-negative breast cancer cell MDA-MB-231 as a model, chained strand displacement reactions were initiated after the capture probes recognized the surface biomarkers, epidermal growth factor receptor and intercellular adhesion molecule-1, respectively. Then, an increased electrochemical signaling was created to reveal the co-expression of the two targets using quantum dots as electrochemical labeling. Electrochemical results demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity of our method toward the identification of the coexisted therapeutic targets even in the serum samples, which also allowed to monitor the enhanced efficiency of combined therapy. Therefore, our method suggested a potential use in the accurate identification of therapeutic targets in breast cancer that might provide more information to facilitate the combined therapy in clinic.

Automated summary

The study introduced a novel method for simultaneous identification of dual therapeutic targets in breast cancer using in situ automatous DNA assembly reaction and electrochemical techniques. The method demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in identifying co-existed therapeutic targets, even in serum samples, and could potentially provide valuable information for enhancing the efficiency of combined therapy in clinic. The use of quantum dots as electrochemical labeling allowed for the creation of increased electrochemical signaling to reveal the co-expression of the two targets.