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MagPure chip: a microfluidic device for the purification of circulating tumor cells

MagPure-Chip is a lab-on-a-chip dedicated to the immunomagnetic purification of circulating tumor cells (CTC). Combined with the ClearCell FX1®, it allows to obtain a 99.99% depletion rate of white blood cells, without altering the CTCs, and in a timeframe compatible with the clinical context.

Isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) directly from blood via liquid biopsy could lead to a paradigm shift in clinical cancer care by enabling earlier diagnosis, more accurate prognosis, and personalized treatment. Nevertheless, the specific challenges of CTCs, including their rarity and heterogeneity, have limited the use of CTCs in clinical studies. Thanks to a collaboration between members from INL, ILM and HCL, we have developed a microfluidic device, named MagPure chip, that integrates microstructured magnetic materials in order to perform negative selection of mCTCs by immunomagnetic depletion of white blood cells. Its use does not alter the integrity of the CTC, which makes it compatible with downstream cell culture (2D and 3D), as well as phenotypic and genotypic analyses. We have successfully implemented a two-step separation protocol for whole blood processing by combining the MagPure chip with a size-based pre-enrichment system (ClearCell FX1®). The whole process allowed to obtain a high sorting throughput (7.5 ml of blood in less than 4 hours) and a high purity (99.99% depletion rate), and to quantify the heterogeneity of mCTCs in terms of size and tumor marker expression level. This work is continuing towards the development of a version 2 of the MagPure chip, and its use in the clinical context to sort CTCs from patient samples and participate in the development of personalized treatments.

Funding : project LUTON (Pack Ambition Recherche AURA 2017) and PureChip (Inserm PCSI 2022).

Contact: Anne-Laure Deman

Reference : L. Descamps, J. Garcia, D. Barthelemy, E. Laurenceau, L. Payen, D. Le Roy and A. Deman, Lab Chip, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2LC00443G

Collaboratio with ILM and HCL

INL CNRS
Schéma du microsystème fluidique dédié la séparation immunomagnétique des cellules tumorales circulantes. Les globules blancs, marqués en rouge, sont piégées dans le microsystème, et les CTC, marqués en vert, sont récupérées à la sortie.
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