Determination of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is crucial for cancer diagnosis and therapy at an early stage. However, extremely low concentration of CTCs in peripheral blood makes the detection of CTCs challenging. In this study, a reusable cytosensor was developed for rapid detection of CTCs based on excellent photoelectrochemical (PEC) characteristic of semiconductor nanoarrays. Using typical breast cancer cell, MCF-7 cell, as a target model, a PEC sensing platform was constructed with polymerized aminophenylboronic acid (APBA) layer coated CdS/ZnO nanorod arrays, exhibiting outstanding performance for the capture and detection of CTCs. In this design, the polymerized APBA provides abundant binding sites for capturing terminal sialic acid (SA) molecules in CTCs. As a result, the PEC cytosensor shows good sensitivity and specificity with concentrations ranging from 50 to 1.0 × 106 cells/mL MCF-7 cells. Moreover, the PEC cytosensor can be rapidly and effectively recovered via a short-time bias triggered cell release and subsequent repair of APBA. This study establishes a new approach to refine a PEC cytosensor for stable monitoring and provides a robust PEC electrode with high sensitivity and low cost for clinical diagnosis related to CTCs.

中文翻译：

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用于快速捕获和检测循环肿瘤细胞的可再生光电化学细胞传感平台

循环肿瘤细胞 (CTC) 的测定对于癌症的早期诊断和治疗至关重要。然而，外周血中极低浓度的 CTC 使得 CTC 的检测具有挑战性。在这项研究中，基于半导体纳米阵列优异的光电化学 (PEC) 特性，开发了一种可重复使用的细胞传感器，用于快速检测 CTC。以典型的乳腺癌细胞MCF-7细胞为靶标模型，利用聚合氨基苯基硼酸（APBA）层包覆的CdS/ZnO纳米棒阵列构建了PEC传感平台，在CdS/ZnO纳米棒阵列上表现出优异的捕获和检测性能。在这种设计中，聚合的 APBA 提供了丰富的结合位点，用于捕获 CTC 中的末端唾液酸 (SA) 分子。因此，PEC 细胞传感器显示出良好的灵敏度和特异性，浓度范围为 50 到 1.0 × 106 个细胞/mL MCF-7 细胞。此外，PEC 细胞传感器可以通过短时间偏差触发的细胞释放和随后的 APBA 修复快速有效地恢复。该研究建立了一种新方法来改进 PEC 细胞传感器以进行稳定监测，并为 CTC 相关的临床诊断提供具有高灵敏度和低成本的坚固 PEC 电极。