Abstract
This work illustrates focalization performances of a silicon-based bulk acoustic wave device applied for the separation of specimens owing to micrometric dimensions. Samples are separated in the microfluidic channel by the presence of an acoustic field, which focalizes particles or cells according to their mechanical properties compared to the surrounded medium ones. Design and fabrication processes are reported, followed by focalization performance tests conducted either with synthetic particles or cells. High focalization performances occurred at different microparticle concentrations. In addition, preliminary tests carried out with HL-60 cells highlighted an optimal separation performance at a high flow rate and when cells are mixed with micro and nanoparticles without affecting device focalization capabilities. These encouraging results showed how this bulk acoustic wave device could be exploited to develop a diagnostic tool for early diagnosis or some specific target therapies by separating different kinds of cells or biomarkers possessing different mechanical properties such as shapes, sizes and densities.
Highlights
Performing an early diagnosis of cancer alterations is of fundamental importance for patients’ clinical evaluation and treatment strategy [1,2]
Liquid biopsy concerns the analysis of any tumor-derived material circulating in the blood or any other body fluids instead of a fragment of cancer tissue [7,8,9]
bulk acoustic waves (BAW) devices possess a basic configuration composed of a microfluidic channel with two parallel and opposing walls to perform acoustophoresis
Summary
Performing an early diagnosis of cancer alterations is of fundamental importance for patients’ clinical evaluation and treatment strategy [1,2]. Throughout tissue biopsy it is not possible to characterize intraor inter-tumor heterogeneity, a fundamental aspect to assess cancer in its advanced stages or in the presence of different tumor sites This kind of approach cannot be used to achieve a dynamic follow-up of cancer molecular modifications to evaluate cancer progression and evolutions in patients [4,5]. Liquid biopsy concerns the analysis of any tumor-derived material (i.e., circulating tumor cells, exosomes, platelets, tumor-derived nucleic acids, proteins, cytogenetic and cytokinetic parameters) circulating in the blood or any other body fluids instead of a fragment of cancer tissue [7,8,9] It is a non-invasive and real-time monitoring approach requiring less time and low costs for sample taking. This force acting on compressible spherical objects in a standing wave field, referring from the literature [38,39,40,41,42], can be defined as:
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