Comparison of Raman spectra recorded from fresh cheek cells across ten sample substrates and five source wavelengths.

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Biomolecular changes associated with cancer progression can be identified using Raman spectroscopy, allowing for this technique to be utilized as a non-invasive tool for the diagnosis of bladder cancer. Applications of Raman spectroscopy for diagnostics in real-time have consistently produced higher sensitivities and specificities than current clinical methods. This technique can be applied

Translation of Raman micro-spectroscopy into the clinic for bladder cancer diagnosticsviaurine cytology.

Silver thin films are well known as the most sensitive material for surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based analysis. However, the use of silver for this purpose is limited by three main issues, namely poor adhesion to plastic substrates, chemical instability in both air and aqueous environments and hence the difficulty in functionalizing the silver coated substrate for immobilizing biomolecular ligands by conventional liquid phase methods. In this work, we have successfully addressed these problems using gas-phase coating processes. We demonstrate highly adherent sputter-deposited silver coatings on low cost polymer substrates using a sputter-deposited thin gold adhesion layer. The problems of chemical instability and functionalisation have been addressed by using the gas phase process of plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) to deposit thin films with a base SiO(x)C(y)H(z) layer (using tetraethyl orthosilicate precursor) functionalised with carboxylic acid (from sequential deposition with acrylic acid precursor). The resultant coating serves as a protective layer against degradation of the optical properties of silver under long term storage and use in ambient conditions. The reactive carboxyl functionality is used for the covalent immobilization of biomolecules. The successful stabilisation and functionalization of silver films on plastic sensor chips is demonstrated by mouse IgG immunoassays. The expected superior performance of the silver thin films over gold thin films for SPR analysis is demonstrated.

Here we report a preliminary study based on the application of Raman spectroscopy and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to investigate the compositional differences between exosomes derived from ovarian carcinoma cells (cell line A2780) grown in normoxia (normal O 2 conditions) and hypoxia (1% O 2 conditions).Exosomes are integral to cell signalling, and are of interest in the study of how cells communicate within their environment. We are particularly interested in identifying whether hypoxia induced senescent cells can communicate via exosomes with neighbouring tumour cells, thereby causing them to become senescent and therefore radio and chemo resistant. With this goal in mind, we performed a preliminary study on the application of Raman spectroscopy and SERS to analyse the biomolecular fingerprint of both groups of exosomes and to investigate whether there exists a different biomolecular composition associated with exosomes derived from hypoxic cells in comparison to those from normoxic cells. We also applied multivariate statistical techniques for the classification of both groups of exosomes.

We conclude that the protocol developed by Yi et al. is a useful set of guidelines but suggest that additional at-risk components of the LSP also be contoured. We recommend that radiation oncologists practise 'nerve-sparing' radiotherapy by contouring LSPs, especially when using IMRT. We propose the term 'lumbosacral plexus regions' (LSPRs) to highlight the fact that LSPs are not always radiologically visible, only the regions where they are likely to be present.

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