Combining atomic force microscopy (AFM) with Raman spectroscopy (RS), three different subtypes of breast cell lines, including metastatic cancer cells (MDA-MB-231), non-malignant cancer cells (MCF-7) and benign cells (MCF-10A), were studied to compare their differences in nano-mechanical and biochemical properties. Based on AFM measurements, two cancerous cells were found to have a close elasticity modulus, but were significantly softer than that of their benign counterparts. Raman spectral analysis revealed that the data points for two cancerous cells were distinct with completely separated clusters. The results demonstrate that combined AFM and RS techniques could obtain information about the biomechanical and biochemical properties necessary to distinguish different subtypes of breast cancer cells. This will hold great promise for cancer detection at the single cell level.
Early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma is difficult due to the absence of recognizable physical symptoms. In this study, Raman spectra of liver normal tissues and hepatocellular carcinoma tissues were measured by using silver nanoparticles based surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), respectively. The mean Raman spectra of two groups are roughly similar. But the peaks intensity of hepatocellular carcinoma tissues at 722 cm -1 and 1049 cm -1 are obviously higher than those of normal tissues. Some peaks of hepatocellular carcinoma tissues have shifted by different degree.Besides, Raman peaks at 1004cm -1 had disappeared in normal tissue. The result suggested that SERS spectra can feature liver normal tissue and hepatocellular carcinoma tissue. Principal component analysis (PCA) coupled with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was performed on the measured spectra. There were three most diagnostically significant PCs (PC3, PC9, and PC15, p<0.05) for discriminating these two groups. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity both were 84.6%. The whole analysis of each sample needs less time-consumed and cost than other traditional methods in detecting and diagnosing HCC. The preliminary result suggests that SERS spectra can be a potential medical technology to detect and diagnose HCC.
Despite the introduction of high-technology methods of detection and diagnosis, screening of primary liver cancer (PLC) remains imperfect. To diagnosis PLC earlier, Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) coupled with cellulose-acetate membrane electrophoresis were introduced to separate human serum albumin and SERS spectra. Three groups (15 normal persons' samples, 17 hepatitis/cirrhosis samples, 15 cases of PLC) of serum albumin were tested. Silver colloid was used to obtain SERS spectra of human serum albumin. Principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were also employed for statistical analysis. The mean Raman spectra of three groups and the difference spectra of any two suggested that the albumin has changed in liver patients. Compared to normal groups, some Raman peaks have shifted or even disappeared in hepatitis/cirrhosis and PLCs groups. The sensitivity and specificity between PLCs and normal groups is 80% and 93.3%. Among hepatitis/cirrhosis and normal groups, the sensitivity is 88.2% and specificity is also 93.3%. Besides, the sensitivity and specificity between PLCs and hepatitis/cirrhosis groups is 86.7% and 76.5%. All the above data and results indicated that early screening of PLC is potential by SERS in different stages of liver disease before cancer occurs.
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