Silica-coated magnetic nanobeads in a flow enrichment target capture Halbach (FETCH) magnetic separation system for circulating tumor cell enrichment

Peng Liu; Sitian He; Anouk Mentink; Pieter Hart; Yongjun Wu; Leon W M M Terstappen; Pascal Jonkheijm; Michiel Stevens

doi:10.1002/1873-3468.15094

Silica-coated magnetic nanobeads in a flow enrichment target capture Halbach (FETCH) magnetic separation system for circulating tumor cell enrichment

FEBS Lett. 2025 Jan 1. doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.15094. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Peng Liu^{1

2}, Sitian He^{1

3}, Anouk Mentink¹, Pieter Hart¹, Yongjun Wu³, Leon W M M Terstappen^{1

4}, Pascal Jonkheijm², Michiel Stevens^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Cell Biophysics, TechMed Center, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
² Laboratory of Biointerface Chemistry, Department of Molecules and Materials, TechMed Centre, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
³ College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, China.
⁴ Department of General, Visceral and Pediatric Surgery, Heinrich-Heine University, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Germany.
⁵ FETCH BV, Deventer, The Netherlands.

PMID: 39743435
DOI: 10.1002/1873-3468.15094

Abstract

Detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is challenging due to their low presence and heterogeneity. Traditional methods using EpCAM-based separation struggle with CTCs that have undergone epithelial-mesenchymal transition, as this results in lower EpCAM expression. This study presents the use of silica-coated magnetic nanobeads functionalized with streptavidin for CTC capture. Using the FETCH magnetic separation system, we validated the capture efficiency of our beads on tumor cells with varying EpCAM expression. Our beads showed superior capture rates for LNCaP (97%), PC3-9 (91%), PC3 (23%), A549 (22%), and T24 (8%) cells compared to commercial MojoSort™ beads. Despite slightly higher nonspecific binding than CellSearch, our beads demonstrated improved sensitivity for EpCAMlow cells, suggesting they have promise for enhanced CTC capture.

Keywords: FETCH system; circulating tumor cells enrichment; magnetic nanobeads.

Grants and funding

Chinese Government Scholarship