Facilitation of Liquid Biopsy Research using a GC-MS and a Circulating Tumor Cells Isolator

User Benefits

- Because GC-MS detects trace amounts of metabolites (e.g., sugars, amino acids, fatty acids, nucleic acids, organic acids, etc.), it facilitates studies of tumor metabolism by culturing living tumor cells and measuring their culture media. - By using Multi-omics Analysis Packages, not only primary metabolite measurement data but also cell and culture media data can be read to detect measurement items (digital biomarkers) with characteristic features.

Introduction

In recent years, liquid biopsy has attracted attention as a breakthrough technology in cancer research. Liquid biopsy, which uses samples such as urine and blood to detect cancer at an early stage and monitor the effects of treatment, is said to be less invasive and easier to repeat than conventional tissue biopsies. In the development of early detection and treatment of cancer using liquid biopsy, ctDNA is usually the focus. However, since only DNA can be measured with ctDNA as the name implies, an analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) such as RNA and protein is becoming increasingly important (Fig. 1). Isolating living CTCs from blood, concentrating them, and understanding the changes in trace amounts of metabolites contained in the culture medium in which the cancer cells are cultured could make a significant contribution to liquid biopsy research. GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) measures primary metabolites in culture media. However, there are challenges with GC-MS in terms of expertise and metabolic pathway development. To overcome these challenges, this application used GCMS™-TQ8040 NX together with Smart Metabolites Database™ Ver. 2. Using a database eliminates the need for specialized knowledge and technology required for method development. The simultaneous measurement of more than 500 components was completed in 23 minutes. The samples used were 2 types of CTCs, H358 and H1975 lung cancer cells, separated by Cytogen's Smart Biopsy Cell Isolator and cultured in individual culture media with 0, 1, 10, and 100 cells, respectively. The Smart Biopsy Cell Isolator uses gravity-based filtering with HDM to maximize the recovery rate with a special coating to isolate live CTCs in a high-throughput manner in 25 minutes per sample. Statistical analysis was performed using eMSTAT™ Solution Ver. 2 and Multi-omics Analysis Package, using a visualization method combining ANOVA and a metabolic pathway diagram, as well as visualizing and analyzing correlations between CTC count data and metabolites on the metabolic pathways.

July 24, 2024 GMT