en.Wedoany.com Reported - A research team from Nagoya University, Hokkaido University, Tokyo University of Science, Kyoto University, and the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) has developed a microfluidic device based on zinc oxide nanowires that can efficiently and selectively capture cancer-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) from serum.
Extracellular vesicles are nanoscale vesicles that carry molecules such as microRNA and messenger RNA, and display membrane proteins from their parent cells. They can reflect disease states, making them promising diagnostic indicators in liquid biopsy. Liquid biopsy analyzes bodily fluids such as blood and urine to obtain disease information, imposing less physical burden on patients compared to traditional tissue biopsy. However, conventional techniques for accurately and efficiently isolating EVs from complex biological fluids are time-consuming, require large sample volumes, and lack specificity.
The research team, led by Professor Takao Yasui from the Graduate School of Engineering at Nagoya University, had previously achieved efficient EV capture using their developed zinc oxide nanowires. Building on this, the team collaborated with Professor Yasuhide Inokuma from Hokkaido University and others to develop antibody-conjugated nanowire technology for selectively capturing cancer-derived EVs. To address the challenge of antibody attachment, the team used the synthetic polymer polyketone to prepare six variants of N-hydroxysuccinimide-functionalized polyketone (pKNHS) with different chain lengths. Among these, pKNHS 4.2 exhibited the best adsorption stability on zinc oxide nanowires and the most effective antibody immobilization, enabling one-step antibody modification.
In cell culture experiments, the researchers evaluated the capture efficiency of antibody-conjugated nanowires for EVs from breast cancer cells. Nanowires without antibodies captured approximately 65% of CD9-positive EVs, while CD9 antibody-conjugated nanowires achieved 90% efficiency, demonstrating the effectiveness of this technology in selectively recovering target molecules. Further experiments showed that nanowires modified with antibodies targeting ovarian cancer markers CLDN3, FOLR1, and TROP2 could selectively recover EVs derived from ovarian cancer cells.
In serum analysis, the researchers used nanowires modified with the three aforementioned antibodies to isolate EVs from the serum of six patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer and six non-cancer individuals. Analysis of microRNA within the EVs revealed distinct profiles between the patient group and the non-cancer group. When comparing microRNAs in EVs captured by different antibodies, the researchers identified 126 common microRNAs, as well as unique microRNAs for each antibody: 40 for CLDN3, 37 for FOLR1, and 45 for TROP2. These findings indicate that EVs with different membrane proteins possess unique microRNA profiles.
Corresponding author Takao Yasui stated that this nanowire microfluidic device can efficiently and selectively capture cancer-associated EVs through simple chemical modification while suppressing non-specific adsorption, and can preserve the integrity of EV membrane proteins and internal microRNA, showing potential for high-sensitivity analysis of cancer status. Another corresponding author, Kunanon Chattrairat, stated that the team plans to evaluate this technology in comparison with existing clinical methods and expand its application to capture more specific EV subpopulations, with the long-term goal of applying it to non-invasive liquid biopsy and early diagnosis of multiple cancer types.
The research findings were published in the journal Device (paper link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.device.2026.101153).
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