Virtosome: Is it the Answer to Liquid Biopsy Dilemma?

Ola Gaber¹, Ihab Eldessouki¹, Mohamed Magdy¹, Mohamed Rahouma^2*, Mohamed Kamel² & Nagla Abdel Karim³

¹Vontz Center for Molecular Studies, Hematology-Oncology Department, University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
²Surgical Oncology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Egypt
³Hematology-Oncology Department, Augusta University, GA, USA

Dr. Mohamed Rahouma, Surgical Oncology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Egypt.

Keywords: Liquid; Biopsy; Tumor; DNA; Circulating; Virtosome

Abstract

Liquid biopsy including circulating tumor cells (CTC), circulating tumor DNA (ct DNA) and exosomes and has been an attractive concept to both researchers and clinicians due to its convenience, dynamicity, universality, and cost-effectiveness. However, when it comes to real life application, it was faced by so many challenges that delayed taking this practice to a more widespread scale and involving it in cancer guidelines. Perhaps one of the most important points made was that the controversial origin of different types of these biopsies and its effect on specificity. That point was greatly overcome by advancements in genetic material isolation and the sequencing techniques. Next-generation sequencing (NGS), a technology used to sequence DNA templates [1], has greatly helped overcome that point. Another crucial point was the representation of the cell dynamic that this biopsy conveys to us; does it represent necrosis, apoptosis, normal secretory mechanism that is part of the basic biologic functions, or a mixture of all that varies with the different cellular inputs. Virtosomes are DNA-RNA-lipoprotein complexes, which are synthesized exclusively by living cells. They have released in an energy-dependent, highly regulated manner within few hours of their formation. These unique characteristics that distinguish them from other forms make it a possibly highly specific and sensitive future biomarker.

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