Abstract 5365: Profiling circulating tumor cell RNA from a large blood screening volume: A pilot study using diagnostic leukapheresis followed by the NanoString low RNA input nCounter assay
Authors: Dong Liang , Huang Chung-Ying , Lu Changxue , Reyes Diane , Amend Sarah R. , Luo Jun , Pienta Kenneth 
Published: September 2020

Introduction and objective: The presence of circulating tumor cells (CTC) is associated with poor prognosis in metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa) patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using diagnostic leukapheresis (LP) followed by gene profiling using the NanoString low RNA input nCounter assay to achieve reliable CTC gene profiling.

Methods: Blood samples were collected from 4 mPCa patients and 3 healthy donors. In the LP procedure, different blood elements were separated based on density. The mononuclear cell layer (presumed to contain any CTCs) was collected. The Alere™ CTC AdnaTest (AdnaGen, Langenhagen, Germany), an EpCAM positive selection method for isolation of EpCAM+ CTCs, followed by RT-qPCR for PSA, PSMA, and HOXB13 was used to detect CTCs from LP. The Ct value thresholds for positive CTC signal by RT-qPCR were set based on healthy donor LP subjected to AdnaTest as a negative control (PSA 36.3, PSMA 36.82, HOXB13 40). The cDNA of cells captured by EpCAM+ selection (including putative CTCs) and of the EpCAM+ depleted white blood cells (WBC) were assayed by the nCounter PanCancer Progression Panel to determine expression of 770 selected mRNAs. The NanoString nCounter Low RNA Input Kit with the multiplex 770-gene primer pool was used for the pre-amplification of cDNA and overnight hybridization with the PanCancer Progression panel. To validate the assay, healthy donor LPs were spiked with known numbers of PCa cell line LN95 cells.

Results: For mPCa patients, the LP procedure took 136.2±10.6 min, with a screening volume of 10L of peripheral blood. The mean volume of mPCa LP product was 123.64±12.23 ml. The WBC concentration was 69.75±28.2×109/L. All samples were subjected to AdnaTest in triplicate and CTCs were identified in 3 out of 4 patients. The positive Ct values of PSA were 33.86±0.81, 32.14±0.31 and 33.09±0.34; PSMA were 35.55±1.02, 33.55±0.83 and 35.30±0.65; HOXB13 were 36.25±0.34, 37.15±0.22 and 37.09±0.33. To assess profiling of CTCs isolated from LP using the nCounter platform, 100, 500, and 1000 LN95 cells were spiked in healthy LPs and were analyzed with the AdnaTest. Within each spiking group, pre-spiking WBC, captured CTC, post-capture WBC, and LN95 cells in PBS alone were subjected to the Nanostring assay. Eisen Cluster analysis separated pre- and post- WBCs, captured CTCs, LN95 cells into three groups. The gene expression of captured CTCs correlated with those of LN95 cells, and the correlation increased with the spiking cancer cell number (R2=0.45, 0.57, and 0.70, respectively). The gene expression of pre-spiked WBCs were highly correlated with those of post-capture WBCs regardless of spiking cancer cell number (R2=0.83, 0.84 and 0.85).

Conclusions: Analyzing CTCs in LP samples by AdnaTest is feasible and offers a promising method for liquid biopsy of mPCa patients. The NanoString low RNA input nCounter assay can provide reliable gene expression profiling of CTC.

Citation Format: Liang Dong, Chung-Ying Huang, Changxue Lu, Diane Reyes, Sarah R. Amend, Jun Luo, Kenneth Pienta. Profiling circulating tumor cell RNA from a large blood screening volume: A pilot study using diagnostic leukapheresis followed by the NanoString low RNA input nCounter assay [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 5365.