Ex Vivo Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells from Whole Blood by Direct Nanoparticle Visualization

The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood samples can predict prognosis, response to systemic chemotherapy, and metastatic spread of carcinoma. Therefore, approaches for CTC identification is an important aspect of current cancer research. Here, a method for the direct visualization of nanoparticle-coated CTCs under dark field illumination is presented. A metastatic breast cancer cell line (4T1) was transduced with a non-native target protein (Thy1.1). Positive 4T1-Thy1.1 cells incubated with antibody-coated metallic nanoshells appeared overly bright at low magnification, allowing a quick screening of samples and easy visual detection of even single isolated CTCs. The use of a nontransduced cell line as control creates the ideal scenario to evaluate nonspecific binding. A murine metastatic tumor model with the 4T1-Thy1.1 cell line was also implemented. Blood was drawn from mice over the course of one month, and CTCs were successfully detected in all positive subjects. This work validates the use of metallic nanoshells as labels for direct visualization of CTCs while providing guidelines to a systematic development of nanotechnology-based detection systems for CTCs.