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Nucleic acid and nanomaterial-assisted signal-amplified strategies in fluorescent analysis of circulating tumor cells and small extracellular vesicles

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Abstract 

As two main types of liquid biopsy markers, both circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) play important roles in the diagnosis and prognosis of cancers. CTCs are malignant cells that detach from the original tumor tissue and enter the circulation of body fluids. sEVs are nanoscale vesicles secreted by normal cells or pathological cells. However, CTCs and sEVs in body fluids are scarce, leading to great difficulties in the accurate analysis of related diseases. For the sensitive detection of CTCs and sEVs in body fluids, various types of nucleic acid and nanomaterial-assisted signal amplification strategies have been developed. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in fluorescent detection of CTCs and sEVs in liquid biopsy based on nucleic acid and nanomaterial-assisted signal amplification strategies. We also discuss their advantages, challenges, and future prospects.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22274054, 21974050, and 11727810), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (20ZR1418000), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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  1. Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, Department of Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China

    Xinyu Hu, Wenqiao Tan, Shasha Cheng, Yuezhong Xian & Cuiling Zhang

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Published in the topical collection Young Investigators in (Bio-)Analytical Chemistry 2023 with guest editors Zhi-Yuan Gu, Beatriz Jurado-Sánchez, Thomas H. Linz, Leandro Wang Hantao, Nongnoot Wongkaew, and Peng Wu.

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Hu, X., Tan, W., Cheng, S. et al. Nucleic acid and nanomaterial-assisted signal-amplified strategies in fluorescent analysis of circulating tumor cells and small extracellular vesicles. Anal Bioanal Chem 415, 3769–3787 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-04509-2

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