Academia Sinica researchers have developed a streamlined method that can determine whether a tumor is cancerous just by analyzing a single cell.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications in January.
Cancer diagnosis normally requires the pathological analysis of a tissue sample taken from a tumor, and genome sequencing is the most common examination method.
Photo courtesy of Academia Sinica’s Institute of Chemistry
Although proteins can be targeted by cancer therapies, existing proteomic analysis technologies often need to go through complicated procedures, and the sensitivity of protein profiling is limited, so there has not been a single device for all-in-one proteomic sample preparation and analysis.
A research team led by Academia Sinica’s Institute of Chemistry assistant research fellow Tu Hsiung-lin (涂熊林) and distinguished research fellow Chen Yu-ju (陳玉如) developed a streamlined workflow combining microfluidic chips for an all-in-one proteomic sample preparation and data-independent acquisition (DIA) mass spectrometry (MS), for proteomic analysis at the single-cell level.
Using the method, more than 1,500 types of proteins can be analyzed by using a single cell, said the study, which listed Sofani Gebreyesus, a researcher at Tu’s lab, and Asad Siyal, a researcher at Chen’s lab, as the first authors.
Pathological diagnosis is the current standard for diagnosing cancer, and a malignant tumor is determined through a biopsy procedure, in which a sample of the tumor tissue is removed and examined to see if it is cancerous, it said.
However, a tissue sample containing more than hundreds of thousands of cells must be removed for a biopsy procedure, which cannot be completed with one single device, it said, adding that a pathology report usually takes about three working days, while a molecular pathology report takes about 14 working days to complete.
The streamlined single-cell proteomics developed by Tu and Chen’s research team has an integrated microfluidic chip and DIA-MS for proteomic analysis, enabling multiplexed and automated cell isolation, counting, imaging and sample processing in a single device, significantly improving its efficiency, the study said.
Chen said that the streamlined single-cell proteomics can detect and analyze the essential proteins of a cancer, which means that the microfluidic chip has the potential to precisely determine which cells are benign and which are malignant by analyzing a tissue sample, which might include cancerous cells, immune cells and normal cells.
Tu said research teams around the world have been trying to reduce the required amount of cells to the single-cell level.
Their team is the first to accomplish the feat, using a single chip to analyze the proteins in a single cell, Tu said, adding that the whole process is integrated into a special customized chip.
He said the streamlined workflow combining microfluidic chips for an all-in-one proteomic sample preparation and DIA-MS for proteomic analysis is expected to reduce the amount of samples and reagents needed, and it could also be used for fundamental research or clinical examination.
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