American scientists create biochip for lung cancer early detection

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. The 5 year survival rate is ∼55% for early stage lung cancer but only 5% for late stage lung cancer, reflecting the urgent need for effective screening and early detection methods. Although low dose computed tomography (CT) is recommended as the screening test for patients at high risk of lung cancer, this test suffers a high false positive rate (> 95%) and radiation risk. Detecting circulating biomarkers in blood via liquid biopsies is a promising and patient-friendly strategy for lung cancer early detection. This opportunity was used by scientists from The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, United States.

The scientists researched the potential of determining exosomal microRNAs as biomarkers of lung cancer. Exosomes are small, nanosized vesicles released by all types of cells. They stably exist in various body fluids, such as blood and urine, in large quantities. Exosomes carry many molecular cargos including microRNAs, mRNAs, DNA fragments and proteins from cells of origin. Exosomes, especially those released by tumor cells, are actively involved in cancer development, metastasis and drug resistance. Therefore, exosomes are promising biomarkers for cancer diagnosis.

They have developed a tethered cationic lipoplex nanoparticles (tCLN) biochip that is capable of distinguishing cancer cell-derived exosomal microRNAs from normal cell-derived exosomal microRNAs, making it potentially more sensitive in cancer diagnosis than existing technologies.

 «In the future, we will further improve the sensing performance of the tCLN biochip in order to handle more complex biological fluids, such as whole blood. We will also explore the applications of tCLN biochip in screening, early detection, treatment response monitoring and prognosis of other types of cancer».