Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mert Boya, Tevhide Ozkaya-Ahmadov, Brandi E. Swain, Chia-Heng Chu, Norh Asmare, Ozgun Civelekoglu, Ruxiu Liu, Dohwan Lee, Sherry Tobia, Shweta Biliya, L. DeEtte McDonald, Bassel Nazha, Omer Kucuk, Martin G. Sanda, Benedict B. Benigno, Carlos S. Moreno, Mehmet A. Bilen, John F. McDonald, A. Fatih Sarioglu
Summary: The authors introduce a new technology, Cluster-Wells, which enables fast and accurate isolation and analysis of CTC clusters in blood, providing a potential tool for further studying the utility of these clusters in cancer management.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Editorial Material
Medicine, General & Internal
Mary E. Norton
Summary: The 2022 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award is awarded to Yuk Ming Dennis Lo for his discovery of fetal DNA in the maternal circulation, which has revolutionized prenatal screening.
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Hanna Huebner, Hannah Lubrich, Simon Blum, Sophia Antoniadis, Johannes Lermann, Arif Ekici, Peter A. Fasching, Matthias W. Beckmann, Matthias Ruebner, Stefanie Burghaus
Summary: The study compared two extraction methods for isolating and quantifying ccfDNA from endometriosis patients, with the Maxwell method showing significantly higher yield and the QIAamp method showing higher ccfDNA integrity. Both methods are suitable for downstream applications in non-invasive detection and analysis of somatic mutations within endometriosis tissue.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOMEDICINE ONLINE
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Ruoyu Jiang, Sudhanshu Agrawal, Mohammad Aghaamoo, Ritesh Parajuli, Anshu Agrawal, Abraham P. Lee
Summary: This study presents a label-free and high-throughput microbubble-based acoustic microstreaming technique for isolating rare circulating cells with a high capture efficiency and preserving cell integrity within a short time frame. The microfluidic device demonstrated efficient trapping and capturing of rare cells, allowing for rapid isolation of circulating cancer associated fibroblasts (cCAFs), circulating tumor cells (CTCs), and immune cells from cancer patients' blood samples. The approach holds promise for clinical usage as a metastatic propensity assay to elucidate cancer immunological responses and the complex relationships between circulating tumor cells and their microenvironment.
Article
Oncology
Stine H. Kresse, Sara Brandt-Winge, Heidi Pharo, Bjornar T. B. Flatin, Marine Jeanmougin, Hege Marie Vedeld, Guro E. Lind
Summary: The aim of this study was to identify the optimal combination of cfDNA isolation and bisulfite conversion kits for analysis of DNA methylation biomarkers in plasma. After a thorough evaluation of five bisulfite conversion kits and three cfDNA isolation kits, the combination of CNA kit and EpiTect kit performed the best, with the highest DNA yield across a range of input amounts. This combination was successfully used for detection of clinically relevant DNA methylation biomarkers in plasma from cancer patients.
CLINICAL EPIGENETICS
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Yang Liu, Wujun Zhao, Rui Cheng, Bryana N. Harris, Jonathan R. Murrow, Jamie Hodgson, Mary Egan, Anastacia Bankey, Petros G. Nikolinakos, Travis Laver, Kristina Meichner, Leidong Mao
Summary: A new method for cell separation, iFCS, was developed to separate CTCs independently of their surface antigen expression and physical characteristics. This method integrated the diamagnetophoresis of CTCs and magnetophoresis of blood cells via a magnetic liquid medium, ferrofluid, and optimized parameters led to high recovery CTC separation in experimental and clinical samples.
Article
Biology
Ilana Fox-Fisher, Sheina Piyanzin, Bracha Lea Ochana, Agnes Klochendler, Judith Magenheim, Ayelet Peretz, Netanel Loyfer, Joshua Moss, Daniel Cohen, Yaron Drori, Nehemya Friedman, Michal Mandelboim, Marc E. Rothenberg, Julie M. Caldwell, Mark Rochman, Arash Jamshidi, Gordon Cann, David Lavi, Tommy Kaplan, Benjamin Glaser, Ruth Shemer, Yuval Dor
Summary: The immune cell type-specific methylation patterns in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) can be used for studying human immune cell dynamics and provide a novel biomarker for monitoring immune responses to physiological and pathological processes.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Franziska Schlenker, Peter Juelg, Jan Lueddecke, Nils Paust, Roland Zengerle, Tobias Hutzenlaub
Summary: cfDNA is a promising biomarker for cancer monitoring and infectious disease diagnostics. This study presents a new concept for automated cfDNA extraction using nanobeads in a centrifugal microfluidic LabDisk. By optimizing the incubation chamber geometry, frequency, and temperature protocols, the recovery rates of cfDNA were maximized. The LabDisk showed better reproducibility and comparable allele frequencies compared to manual approaches, making it a highly attractive solution for automated liquid biopsy cfDNA extraction.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Nobuyuki Futai, Yuto Fukazawa, Tomohiro Kashiwagi, Shogo Tamaki, Riho Sakai, Catherine A. Hogan, Kanagavel Murugesan, Ashwin Ramachandran, Niaz Banaei, Juan G. Santiago
Summary: This study presents a method for the high-efficiency separation and extraction of short cfDNA fragments, using a millimeter-scale fluidic device to extract the fragments into solid agarose gel slabs from liquid human plasma samples. The method demonstrates high sensitivity in cfDNA detection.
ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Thorsten Voss, Andrea Ullius, Maike Schonborn, Uwe Oelmuller
Summary: Liquid biopsy has seen significant growth in recent decades, especially in the use of circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) as an analyte in diagnostic assays. Establishing an unbiased experimental setup to test factors affecting assay sensitivity is crucial in diagnostic or research laboratories. Differences in performance between two widely used blood ccfDNA profile stabilization technologies were observed in a proof of principle study, highlighting the importance of verifying and validating a liquid biopsy workflow from blood collection to analytical result.
Review
Physiology
Jessica L. Bradshaw, Spencer C. Cushen, Nicole R. Phillips, Styliani Goulopoulou
Summary: In this review, we discuss the changes in circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA during pregnancy and its potential contribution to adverse pregnancy outcomes in pregnancy complications.
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Bernadeta Pietrzak, Iwona Kawacka, Agnieszka Olejnik-Schmidt, Marcin Schmidt
Summary: Human blood contains low biomass of circulating microbial cell-free DNA (cfmDNA) that primarily comes from bacteria. Circulating cfmDNA has been detected in patients with various diseases and in healthy individuals. Differences in microbial composition between healthy individuals and patients suggest potential associations with disease development. Although the function of circulating cfmDNA needs further clarification, it has the potential to serve as a non-invasive biomarker for improved diagnosis and treatment efficacy. The origin and function of circulating cfmDNA require further investigation.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Biomaterials
Xiaoxi Zhou, Yujia Zhang, Ke Kang, Nanhang Zhu, Jia Cheng, Qiangying Yi, Yao Wu
Summary: This study proposes a method of using commercialized lipids and proteins to create artificial cell membrane camouflaged immunomagnetic nanoparticles. It overcomes the challenges of isolating circulating tumor cells and achieves high specificity capture and anti-nonspecific absorption in both mimic and clinical blood samples.
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY B
(2022)
Article
Oncology
Iben Lyskjaer, Neesha Kara, Solange De Noon, Christopher Davies, Ana Maia Rocha, Anna-Christina Strobl, Inga Usher, Craig Gerrand, Sandra J. Strauss, Daniel Schrimpf, Andreas von Deimling, Stephan Beck, Adrienne M. Flanagan
Summary: The study aimed to discover and validate methylation-based biomarkers to detect plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in osteosarcoma (OS) patients and explore their utility as prognostic markers. The findings showed the potential of mutation-independent methylation-based ctDNA assays for OS and laid the foundation for further multi-institutional collaborative studies on plasma-derived biomarkers in the management of OS.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER
(2022)
Article
Oncology
Ricardo Martins-Ferreira, Barbara Leal, Joao Chaves, Laura Ciudad, Raquel Samoes, Antonio Martins da Silva, Paulo Pinho Costa, Esteban Ballestar
Summary: DNA methylation profiling can be used as a non-invasive and reproducible approach to identify biomarkers for epilepsy.
CLINICAL EPIGENETICS
(2022)