Breakthrough in Non-invasive Cancer Diagnosis: Sialic Acid Recognition and Microfluidic Chip-Single-Cell ICP-MS

Researchers from Wuhan University in the People's Republic of China have developed a groundbreaking method for detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood samples with high accuracy and speed. The method, which utilizes sialic acid recognition and microfluidic chip-single-cell inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SC-ICP-MS), can quickly screen different types of epithelial- and mesodermal-derived CTCs with a throughput of 10 minutes per sample and limits of detection as low as 28 cells/mL.

Key Takeaways:

• The researchers developed a simple, fast, and universal CTCs analysis method by integrating sialic acid recognition strategy, microfluidic cell sorting, and online single-cell inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SC-ICP-MS) detection.
• The method can quickly screen different types of epithelial- and mesodermal-derived CTCs with a throughput of 10 minutes per sample and limits of detection as low as 28 cells/mL.
• The developed method has been applied to the detection of CTCs in real blood samples from cancer patients with different cancer types as well as measuring the distribution of single-cell membrane SA expression.
• The researchers successfully removed massive white blood cells (WBCs) by designing a multi-flow microfluidic chip based on size-dependent inertial migration.
• The study concluded that the developed method is a simple and fast screening tool for cancer diagnosis and monitoring.
• Dr. Man He and his team from Wuhan University led the research.
• Additional authors include Junrong Ma, Beibei Chen, Xiao Xiao, Xiaobin Zhu, and Bin Hu.

Statistics:

• Throughput: 10 minutes per sample
• Limits of detection: as low as 28 cells/mL
• Types of CTCs screened: epithelial- and mesodermal-derived
• Cancer types: various cancer types detected in real blood samples

Sources:

• Fast Screening of Circulating Tumor Cells in Blood Samples by Sialic Acid Recognition and Microfluidic Chip-Single-Cell ICP-MS: A Breakthrough in Non-invasive Cancer Diagnosis. Analytical Chemistry, 2025;97(34):18760-18768.
• Researchers' Work from Wuhan University Focuses on Cancer (Fast Screening of Circulating Tumor Cells in Blood Samples by Sialic Acid Recognition and Microfluidic Chip-Single-Cell ICP-MS: A Breakthrough in Non-invasive Cancer Diagnosis). Cancer Weekly. September 16, 2025; p 3296.