Fluorescent Detection of Secondary Structure in Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer has one of the highest mortality rates among all cancers largely due to the late-stage onset of symptoms and the lack of early detection methods. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) could serve the potential as the next biomarker for pancreatic cancer detection because they directly reflect the state and composition of their parent cells. This work aimed to generate a high-throughput assay by combining immunoprecipitation of EVs with -sheet staining by Thioflavin T (ThT) in a 96-well plate based off previous findings that ThT could be used to measure the elevated -sheet richness found in tumor-derived EVs. This research tested four different immunoprecipitation methods in a 96-well plate. Although this work was not able to successfully create a high-throughput assay, it offers insight to increase fluorescent sensitivity by using a fluorescent microscope and optimizing immunocapture of EVs by developing an improved mixing method in 96-well plate.