Protein-carbohydrate complex reveals circulating metastatic cells in a microfluidic assay

Giuseppina Simone, Natalia Maria Malara, Valentina Trunzo, Gerardo Perozziello, Pavel Neužil, Marco Francardi, Laura Roveda, Maria Renne, Ubaldo Prati, Vincenzo Mollace, Andreas Manz, Enzo M. Di Fabrizio

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Advances in carbohydrate sequencing technologies reveal the tremendous complexity of the glycome and the role that glycomics might have to bring insight into the biological functions. Carbohydrate-protein interactions, in particular, are known to be crucial to most mammalian physiological processes as mediators of cell adhesion and metastasis, signal transducers, and organizers of protein interactions. An assay is developed here to mimic the multivalency of biological complexes that selectively and sensitively detect carbohydrate-protein interactions. The binding of β-galactosides and galectin-3 - a protein that is correlated to the progress of tumor and metastasis - is examined. The efficiency of the assay is related to the expression of the receptor while anchoring to the interaction's strength. Comparative binding experiments reveal molecular binding preferences. This study establishes that the assay is robust to isolate metastatic cells from colon affected patients and paves the way to personalized medicine. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2152-2161
Number of pages10
JournalSmall
Volume9
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 11 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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