Fluorescence Anisotropy Cytosensing of Folate Receptor Positive Tumor Cells Using 3D Polyurethane-Go-Foams Modified With Folic Acid: Molecular Dynamics and in Vitro Studies Publisher Pubmed

Summary: What if foams could snag and spotlight cancer cells? PU@GO-PEG-FA foams via MD-simmed FA-folate receptor bonds capture tumors with 25 cells/mL LOD—enabling early fluorescence detection for better outcomes. #CancerDetection #Nanobiotechnology

Esmaeili Y¹ ; Mohammadi Z¹ ; Khavani M² ; Sanati A¹ ; Shariati L^{3, 4} ; Seyedhosseini Ghaheh H⁵ ; Bidram E^{1, 3} ; Zarrabi A⁶
Source: Microchimica Acta Published:2023

Abstract

Integrated polyurethane (PU)–based foams modified with PEGylated graphene oxide and folic acid (PU@GO-PEG-FA) were developed with the goal of capturing and detecting tumor cells with precision. The detection of the modified PU@GO-PEG surface through FA against folate receptor-overexpressed tumor cells is the basis for tumor cell capture. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were applied to study the strength of FA interactions with the folate receptor. Based on the obtained results, the folate receptor has intense interactions with FA, which leads to the reduction in the FA interactions with PEG, and so decreases the fluorescence intensity of the biosensor. The synergistic interactions offer the FA-modified foams a high efficiency for capturing the tumor cell. Using a turn-off fluorescence technique based on the complicated interaction of FA-folate receptor generated by target recognition, the enhanced capture tumor cells could be directly read out at excitation-emission wavelengths of 380–450 nm. The working range is between 1×10 2to 2×10 4cells mL -1 with a detection limit of 25 cells mL -1 and good reproducibility with relative standard deviation of 2.35%. Overall, findings demonstrate that the fluorescence-based biosensor has a significant advantage for early tumor cell diagnosis. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.