Rapid detection of hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis using reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification

The main therapies of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are hepatectomy and liver transplantation, but the recurrence rate of HCC after radical resection remains high. We established a novel method based on reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) for the rapid identification of four cancer stem cell-specific biomarkers to estimate the potential risk of HCC metastasis. After optimizing the final concentrations of Mg2+ and betaine, the sensitivity limits for detection of CK19 and EpCAM could reach 10 to 20 copies, while the sensitivity limits for the detection of CD133 and CD90 could reach 10 copies. We detected clinical specimens from 10 HCC patients and performed analysis before and after receiving hepatectomy using RT-LAMP and quantitative reverse transcription polymerise chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The results of both were consistent, but RT-LAMP was proved to be a more rapid, more sensitive, and more economic approach. This novel method is expected to estimate the recurrence and metastasis of HCC for clinical application by combining various low-cost circulating tumor cell sorting and detection tools.