Zwitterionic microgel preservation platform for circulating tumor cells in whole blood specimen

The immediate processing of whole blood specimen is required in circulating tumor cell-based liquid biopsy. Reliable blood specimen stabilization towards preserving circulating tumor cells can enable more extensive geographic sharing for precise rare-cell technology, but remains challenging due to the fragility and rarity of circulating tumor cells. Herein, we establish a zwitterionic magnetic microgel platform to stabilize whole blood specimen for long-term hypothermic preservation of model circulating tumor cells. We show in a cohort study of 20 cancer patients that blood samples can be preserved for up to 7 days without compromising circulating tumor cell viability and RNA integrity, thereby doubling the viable preservation duration. We demonstrate that the 7-day microgel-preserved blood specimen is able to reliably detect cancer-specific transcripts, similar to fresh blood specimens, while there are up/down expression regulation of 1243 genes in model circulating tumor cells that are preserved by commercial protectant. Mechanistically, we find that the zwitterionic microgel assembly counters the cold-induced excessive reactive oxygen species and platelet activation, as well as extracellular matrix loss-induced cell anoikis, to prevent circulating tumor cell loss in the whole blood sample. The present work could prove useful for the development of blood-based noninvasive diagnostics.