Neuroblastoma (NB) is a childhood cancer of the peripheral nervous system. It affects 10.2 per million children under 15 years of age, and it is the most frequent type of cancer in the first year of life. Despite all the efforts in new therapies, overall survival rates remaining below 40%. Besides, long term survivors suffer from secondary effects inflicted by current multimodal therapies on their normal, developing organs. In this context, there is an important medical need to develop devices for rapid quantification of circulating markers that allow for the precise evaluation of tumor evolution either spontaneous and/or in response to treatments. Parathyroid Hormone-like Hormone (PTHLH) is a cytokine that exerts relevant roles in normal tissues as well as in the initiation, progression and dissemination of several tumors. PTHLH is identified as a factor responsible for neuroblastomainduced hypercalcemia and it is known that circulating PTHLH is a useful marker to monitor the state of malignant-associated hypercalcemia and the effectiveness of treatment in cancer patients. However, there is a lack of specific, sensitive and widely available techniques to detect and quantify this protein. Methods used in hospitals are based on radioimmunoassays (RIAs), involving time consuming hazardous procedures which require sophisticated and expensive equipment and facilities. So point-of-care biosensors for PTHLH detection are strongly demanded by oncologists. In this context, we present here two different nanobiosensing approaches for the rapid and sensitive determination of PTHLH in physiological samples. The first approach is based on the use of solid-state nanoporous platforms in combination with electrochemical detection on screen-printed electrodes. Immunocomplex formation inside the nanoporous platforms leads to nanochannel blockage, which is electrochemically monitored and related to PTHLH concentration. The second methodology relies in a lateral-flow immunoassay (LFIA) using gold nanoparticle (AuNP) tags. Cell culture medium and cell lysates are evaluated with these systems, giving relevant information for understanding the factors that regulate the production and secretion of this protein by tumor cells, with potential interest for new therapies. PTHLH is also determined in human serum, being this data of great interest for diagnostics and for monitoring the effectiveness of therapies.

ICN2 acknowledges support of the Spanish MINECO under projects MAT2014-52485-P and PCIN-2016-066 (“NACANCELL”) and through the Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence Program under Grant SEV-2013-0295. The Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant 2014 SGR 260) is also acknowledged. The authors also wish to acknowledge funding from the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS PI14/ 00040 to CdT) and Fundació Privada Cellex.

Resumen del trabajo presentado al VIII International Congress on Analytical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, celebrado en Barcelona (España) del 3 al 5 de julio de 2017.

Peer reviewed