A New Screening system for Pancreatic Cancer Using a Microfluidic Device for Efficient Chemotaxis of Caenorhabditis elegan

Aim: To investigated the usefulness of a newly developed microfluidic device that enabled efficient movement of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) in pancreatic cancer (PC) diagnosis.
Methods: The device was a two-port channel with a pillar structure to match the meandering motion of C. elegans. Urine samples from 14 pathologically confirmed PC patients and 14 healthy volunteers were used. 2 μl of M9Buffer containing wild-type C. elegans and diluted urine x10 was dropped into the left and right port, respectively. The number of C. elegans that moved to the right port was counted every 10sec for 3min. Measurements were performed 3 times and averaged.
Results: A significantly larger number of C. elegans were found in the right port in PC specimens at 30sec after urine drop (1.57 vs. 0.5, P=0.008), and at any time after 40sec with a P value<0.001. The AUROC based on the mean number of C. elegans in the right port exceeded 0.9 after 40sec, and the cutoff value for PC at 60sec was 6, with a sensitivity of 71.4% and a specificity of 100%.
Conclusion: A novel microfluidic device has the potential to measure the chemotaxis of C. elegans more easily and rapidly than conventional methods, and could be a useful screening test for PC.