A hybrid of B and T lymphoblastic cell line could potentially substitute dendritic cells to efficiently expand out Her-2/neu-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes from advanced breast cancer patients in vitro

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition of circulating tumor cells in prostate cancer is promoted by survivin

Objective

Recent studies demonstrated that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) contribute to the metastasis of prostate cancer. Survivin knockout could inhibit epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and suppress several metastatic tumors. In this study, we examined the potential involvement of survivin in EMT in CTCs.

Methods

CTCs were isolated from the peripheral blood of 100 patients with prostate cancer as EpCAM⁺/CD45⁻ cells via FACS sorting and identified by immunofluorescence staining of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). CTCs and DU145 cells were transfected with survivin siRNA. Then, the levels of survivin, E-cadherin, and vimentin in CTCs and DU145 cells were detected via immunofluorescence staining, and the invasiveness of CTCs and DU145 cells was examined using a Transwell chamber.

Results

The results revealed the abundant expression of PSA in the cytoplasm of CTCs. Transfection of survivin siRNA significantly decreased the levels of survivin and vimentin in CTCs and DU145, whereas that of E-cadherin was significantly increased, suggesting survivin plays an important role in EMT of CTCs. In addition, survivin siRNA significantly inhibited the invasiveness of CTCs and DU145 cells.

Conclusions

Survivin plays an important role in EMT of CTCs in prostate cancer, which might mediate the metastasis and invasion of prostate cancer.

Liquid Biopsy: The Unique Test for Chasing the Genetics of Solid Tumors

Blood test is a kind of liquid biopsy that checks cancer cells or cancer nucleic acids circulating freely from cells in the blood. A liquid biopsy may be used to distinguish cancer at early stages and it could be a game-changer for both cancer diagnosis and prognosis strategies. Liquid biopsy tests consider several tumor components, such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and the tiny vesicles originating from tumor cells. Actually, liquid biopsy signifies the genetic alterations of tumors through nucleic acids or cells in various body fluids, including blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, or saliva in a noninvasive manner. In this review, we present an overall description of liquid biopsy in which circulating tumor cells, cell-free nucleic acids, exosomes, and extrachromosomal circular DNA are included.

Nanostructured Substrates for Detection and Characterization of Circulating Rare Cells: From Materials Research to Clinical Applications

Circulating rare cells in the blood are of great significance for both materials research and clinical applications. For example, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been demonstrated as useful biomarkers for "liquid biopsy" of the tumor. Circulating fetal nucleated cells (CFNCs) have shown potential in noninvasive prenatal diagnostics. However, it is technically challenging to detect and isolate circulating rare cells due to their extremely low abundance compared to hematologic cells. Nanostructured substrates offer a unique solution to address these challenges by providing local topographic interactions to strengthen cell adhesion and large surface areas for grafting capture agents, resulting in improved cell capture efficiency, purity, sensitivity, and reproducibility. In addition, rare-cell retrieval strategies, including stimulus-responsiveness and additive reagent-triggered release on different nanostructured substrates, allow for on-demand retrieval of the captured CTCs/CFNCs with high cell viability and molecular integrity. Several nanostructured substrate-enabled CTC/CFNC assays are observed maturing from enumeration and subclassification to molecular analyses. These can one day become powerful tools in disease diagnosis, prognostic prediction, and dynamic monitoring of therapeutic response-paving the way for personalized medical care.

Current progress in the clinical use of circulating tumor cells as prognostic biomarkers

The process of metastasis is characterized by the shedding of tumor cells into the bloodstream, where they are transported to other parts of the body to seed new tumors. These cells, known as circulating tumor cells (CTCs), have the potential to reveal much about an individual cancer case, and theoretically can aid in the prediction of outcomes and design of precision treatments. Recent advances in technology now allow for the robust and reproducible characterization of CTCs from a simple blood draw. Both the number of circulating cells and important molecular characteristics correlated with clinical phenotypes such as drug resistance can be obtained and used for real-time prognostic analysis. Molecular characterization can provide a snapshot of the activity of the main tumor (serving as a "liquid biopsy") and early warnings concerning changes such as the development of resistance, and aid in predicting the efficacy of different therapeutic approaches for treatment optimization. Herein, the authors review the current clinical use of CTCs as prognostic biomarkers for several different cancers. The quantification of CTCs can lead to more accurate staging and decision making regarding options such as adjuvant chemotherapy.

Gene Expression Analysis of Immunomagnetically Enriched Circulating Tumor Cell Fraction in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

BACKGROUND

Molecular characterization of tumors could be a key to therapeutic decision-making with regards to targeted therapies in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). A convenient solution may be non-invasive liquid biopsy testing of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). For this reason, CTC-enriched samples obtained by immunomagnetic separation (AdnaTest^®) were studied as a source material for high-throughput gene expression analysis using BioMark™.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

CTC-enriched samples from 41 CRPC patients previously determined to be CTC positive using the AdnaTest^® were retrospectively re-analysed for androgen receptor (AR) messenger RNA (mRNA), using the updated AdnaTest^®. Blood samples were drawn two times from each patient: at the time of CRPC diagnosis and after the third docetaxel cycle. A gene expression panel of 27 genes related to CRPC therapeutic decision-making, including AR full length (ARFL) and splice variant 7 (ARV7), was retrospectively analyzed on a BioMark™ platform in 29 of 41 patients.

RESULTS

The AdnaTest^® detected AR mRNA in three-quarters of CTC-positive samples taken at the time of CRPC diagnosis and after the third docetaxel cycle. AR detection was associated with a shorter disease-specific survival (45.0 vs. 20.4 months) at the time of CRPC diagnosis. ARFL expression at the time of CRPC diagnosis, measured on the BioMark™ platform, was associated with a lower decrease of serum level of prostate-specific antigen (sPSA) (p = 0.029), i.e., worse therapy response. ARV7 was found in 38% of the ARFL--positive samples at both analyzed timepoints.

CONCLUSION

Detection of AR expression by AdnaTest^® in CTC-enriched samples may help predict patients' survival. These AdnaTest^® CTC-enriched samples can be used in a high-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis of gene expression, provided that the specificity of the assay for each individual gene is properly validated. The BioMark™ platform can be used for the simultaneous detection of ARFL and ARV7 and other genes in CTC-enriched samples from CRPC patients.