A team of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has developed a revolutionary technology that can be used to discriminate between prostate cancer cells in body fluidshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif of those who are healthy.
The results are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Although the new technology is years away from clinical use, researchers are confident that it will be useful in the development of microwave devices, which helps us to understand, when prostate cancer has spread, or metastasize to other parts of the body.
"There have been studies to find the relationship between the number of cancer cells in blood, and the result of the disease," said first author Alessia Pallaoro, a postdoctoral fellow at UCSB Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "The more cancer cells are found in the blood of the patient, the better the prognosis.
"Cancer cells are found in the blood is supposed to be the initiators of a metastasis," Pallaoro said. "It would be really important to be able to find them and recognize them in the blood or other body fluids. This could be useful for the diagnosis and monitoring during treatment. "
The researchers explain that although the primary tumor does not kill patients with prostate cancer, solitary metastasis. "The delay is not well understood," said Gary Braun, the second author and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Molecular, Cell and Development. "There is a strong emphasis on understanding the appearance of the tumor to kill cells in the blood. If you could catch them all, then you can stop metastasis. The first is to control their appearance."
The team developed a new technique to distinguish between cancerous and noncancerous cells using a type of laser called surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and silver nanoparticles, which are Biotage.
"Silver nanoparticles emit different colors when they absorb laser light," says Braun. "This is different from that of fluorescence. The new technology could be stronger than the fluorescence."
The breakthrough is being able to include multiple markers to identify and study the unique tumor cells, which are different from primary tumor cells, said Pallaoro. "These different cells must be strong enough to start a new tumor, or they must develop the changes that will allow them to colonize other parts of the body," she said. "Some changes to the surface, which is what we are trying to discover. "
The team is working to turn technology into a micro-diagnostic for studying cancer cells in the blood. The cells are mixed with nanoparticles and passes through a laser, then discriminated by the ratio of two signals.
Two types of biotags used in this study is a special bond, which is dictated by the peptide on the surface are involved. A type of cell receptor called Neuropilin-1, recently described biomarker found on the surface membrane of tumor cells. Biotage is linked by many other types of cells (both cancerous and noncancerous) and serves as a measurement standard cells are analyzed.
In this study, the mixed team of two and a Biotage added to cultures of normal and tumor cells. The average SERS signal in a given cell image gave a ratio of two signals in line with the identity of cells known.
Pallaoro said he believes the most important part of the new technique is that it could be expanded with the addition of colors - different particles in different colors - when multiple biomarkers can be found. The team used a new biomarker discovered, researchers at the University of California, and Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute.
The author of the paper is Muscovites Martin, a professor in UCSB Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Identifies Prostate Cancer Cells
