PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - France Caza
AU  - Philippine Granger Joly de Boissel
AU  - Richard Villemur
AU  - Stéphane Betoulle
AU  - Yves St-Pierre
TI  - Liquid biopsies for omics-based analysis in sentinel mussels
AID  - 10.1101/720219
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 720219
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/07/31/720219.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/07/31/720219.full
AB  - Liquid biopsy of plasma is a simple and non-invasive technology that holds great promise in biomedical research. It is based on the analysis of nucleic acid-based biomarkers with predictive potential. In the present work, we have combined this concept with the FTA technology for sentinel mussels. We found that hemocytes collected from liquid biopsies can be readily fixed on FTA cards and used for long-term transriptome analysis. We also showed that liquid biopsy is easily adaptable for metagenomic analysis of bacterial profiles of mussels. We finally provide evidence that liquid biopsies contained circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) which can be used as an easily accessible genomic reservoir. Sampling of FTA-fixed circulating nucleic acids is stable at room temperature and does not necessitate a cold-chain protection. It showed comparable performance to frozen samples and is ideally adapted for sampling in remote areas, most notably in polar regions threatened by anthropogenic activities. From an ethical point of view, this minimally-invasive and non-lethal approach further reduces incidental mortality associated with conventional tissue sampling. This liquid biopsy-based approach should thus facilitate biobanking activities and development of omics-based biomarkers in sentinel mussels to assess the quality of marine ecosystems.