Development of L-phenylalanine-grafted poly (vinyl alcohol) scaffold for selective capturing of cancer cells

Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in women. The majority of deaths from breast cancer do not result from the primary tumor itself but from metastasis to other organs in the body. Here, we report the development of a novel polymeric material that selectively traps breast cancer cells. The cancer cell-capturing polymer was synthesized by grafting L-phenylalanine onto a biocompatible poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA-Phe). L-phenylalanine exhibits high affinity to L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1), which is overexpressed on various cancer cells. We evaluated cancer cell-selective adhesion ability of PVA-Phe using MCF-7, a human hormone receptor-positive breast cancer model cell expressing LAT1. Our results suggest that LAT1 on cancer cells recognizes the L-phenylalanine and that MCF-7 selectively adheres to the synthesized PVA-Phe. For patients at risk of cancer recurrence, we expect that PVA-Phe synthesized in this study could serve to capture the remaining cancer cells when implanted in the body. Together with an appropriate scaffold that functions to attract cancer cells, PVA-Phe may have the potential to completely prevent cancer recurrence.