Denninghoff Valeria, Garrido-Navas María Del Carmen, Molina-Vallejo María Del Pilar, García-Díaz Abel, Pérez-Villares José Miguel, Colmenero-Ruiz Manuel, Expósito-Hernández José, Lorente Jose Antonio, Navarro-María José María, Díaz-Mochón Juan José, de Miguel-Perez Diego, Rolfo Christian, Romero-Palacios Pedro José, Navarrete Bernardino Alcázar, Serrano María José
Liquid Biopsy and Cancer Interception Unit, GENYO, Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research (Pfizer/University of Granada/Andalusian Regional Government), Granada, Spain.
Molecular Oncology Clinical Lab, University of Buenos Aires (UBA)-National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
J Liq Biopsy. 2023 Aug 26;2:100005. doi: 10.1016/j.jlb.2023.100005. eCollection 2023 Dec.
Liquid biopsy (LB) is a minimally invasive procedure that detects biomarkers in body fluids for real-time monitoring of patients. This study developed a new LB approach to analyze Circulating Epithelial Cells (CECs) in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients with severe COVID-19 and High-Exposure Negative Population to COVID-19 (HENPC) as the control group. The CECs were characterized by multispectral imaging flow cytometry, and an anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike S1 protein (ProtS) antibody was used to detect infection. The results showed that CECs were present in most ICU patients (p = 0.0412), and their median number was significantly higher (p = 0.0004) than in controls. CEC clusters were only identified in patients, and high positive ProtS expression was observed in CECs from ICU patients compared to negative controls. In conclusion, LB could be a minimally invasive tool for detecting tissue damage caused by infectious agents and could provide real-time biological information about disease status and evolution. However, further validation in a larger population of patients is needed.
液体活检（LB）是一种微创检测方法，可检测体液中的生物标志物以对患者进行实时监测。本研究开发了一种新的液体活检方法，用于分析重症监护病房（ICU）中患有重症新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）的患者以及作为对照组的新冠高暴露阴性人群（HENPC）的循环上皮细胞（CEC）。通过多光谱成像流式细胞术对CEC进行表征，并使用抗新型冠状病毒刺突S1蛋白（ProtS）抗体检测感染情况。结果显示，大多数ICU患者体内存在CEC（p = 0.0412），且其数量中位数显著高于对照组（p = 0.0004）。仅在患者中发现了CEC簇，与阴性对照组相比，在ICU患者的CEC中观察到较高的ProtS阳性表达。总之，液体活检可能是一种用于检测感染因子所致组织损伤的微创工具，并可为疾病状态和进展提供实时生物学信息。然而，需要在更多患者群体中进行进一步验证。
