Hyaluronic acid-coated magnetic nanoparticles-based selective collection and detection of leukemia cells with quartz crystal microbalance

We have synthesized hyaluronic acid-coated magnetic nanoparticles (HA-MNPs) to selectively collect and detect of leukemia cells (CCRF-CEM) in combination with quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurement. Based on the specific binding of HA with CD44 receptors overexpressed on cell surface, HA-MNPs were successfully employed for selectively extracting CCRF-CEM cells from the complex matrices including human plasma samples. The collection and detection conditions for CCRF-CEM cells were optimized. Under optimized conditions, a detection limit of 8 × 103 cells mL−1 was obtained. The HA-MNPs-based magnetic separation combined with sensitive QCM measurement provides a simple, rapid and economical method for collecting and detecting leukemia cells, and this method may have great potential for wider applications in biomedical research and clinical diagnostics.