AUTORE PRINCIPALE
natalia malara
AFFILIAZIONE
università magna grecia
VALUTA IL CHALLENGE
GRUPPO DI LAVORO
natalia malara – università magna grecia, Calabria
francesco gentile – università napoli, calabria
marialaura coluccio – università magna grecia, calabria
lorenzo ferrara – Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, liguria
marco villani – IMEM-CNR Parco Area delle Scienze, emilia romagna
andrea zappetini – IMEM-CNR Parco Area delle Scienze, emilia romagna
enzo difabrizio – King Abdullah University of Science and Technology università magna grecia, calabria
nicola coppede – IMEM-CNR Parco Area delle Scienze, emilia romagna
AREA TEMATICA
Sviluppo di tecnologie e dispositivi per la salute
ABSTRACT
conductive polymer PEDOTSS have been demonstrated in chemical and biological sensing: while accurate in determining the size of individual ions in solution similar devices break down if challenged with complex mixtures due to the lack of spatial resolution. Here we modified a conductive PEDOTSS polymer to include extra non-continuous scales in the device. This comprises super-hydrophobic SU8 pillars positioned on the substrate to form a non-periodic square lattice in which the distance between the pillars smoothly transitions from the center to the periphery of the pattern. The pattern incorporates a finite number of micro-electrodes in a line that represent the active or sensitive spots of the device. The entire system is coated in cascade with a conductive PEDOTSS polymer and by a fluorocarbon polymer which assures the hydrophobicity of the device. A solution on a similar device would maintain a spherical shape as suspended in air. Due to its curvature Marangoni convective flows develop within the volume of a drop of solution. The competition between convection and diffusion will cause a spatial separation of biological species that would depend on the size and charge of the species in a solution. Thus specific species can be clustered on the basis of their physical characteristics. The device was used to measure the protonation state of secretome derived from liquid biopsy. In opposition to classical biopsy liquid biopsy may respond to the need for a personalized no-invasive efficient cancer diagnosis consisting in the detection of circulating DNA and/or tumour cells (CTCs) from peripheral blood. Circulating biomarkers are highly specific but extremely rare and diluted. The secretome was derived from the expansion of no-haematological cells extracted from cohorts of healthy non-healthy and patients suspected of cancer. It contains all products of cells and reflects their metabolism. The protonation state (PS) of the secretome is and indicator of the conductivity state of proteins and cell growth therefore it can be associated to abnormal cell division abnormal cell proliferation and invasion and cancer progression. In analysing secretome the device clustered samples and identified tumour and non-tumour conditions and the transition between the two with high sensitivity high repeatability and 100% specificity. ( Malara et al 2018 Nature Precision Oncology)
