3D-printed device for DNA fragmentation prior liquid biopsy testing

Abstract

Direct detection of DNA in complex biological samples relates to several problems regarding the selectivity and sensitivity of analyses. Therefore, DNA pre-extraction from biofluids is an emerging tool in biologically related fields. Specifically, a newly developing family of liquid biopsy techniques using PCR detection of circulating tumor DNA from blood serum or blood plasma could be significantly improved by the harnessing of fast and high-throughput DNA sample preparation. For these reasons, we have developed a 3D-printed device and a method based on gel electrophoresis for the preparative separation of DNA fragments from blood. The introduced system successfully eliminated large DNA fragments from the samples. Recovery for short DNA fragments was reaching up to 80%. The developed method was tested on complex biological matrices as blood plasma and blood serum spiked with DNA standard, and it significantly alleviated the signal of matrix DNA.