Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles released by cells for cell-cell communication. They play important roles in cancer development, metastasis, and drug resistance. Exosomal proteins have been demonstrated by many studies as promising biomarkers for cancer screening, diagnosis, and monitoring. Among many detection techniques, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a highly sensitive, label-free, and real-time optical detection method. Commercial prism-based wavelength/angular-modulated SPR sensors afford high sensitivity and resolution, but their large footprint and high cost limit their adaptability for clinical settings. Recently, a nanoplasmonic exosome (nPLEX) assay was developed to detect exosomal proteins for ovarian cancer diagnosis. However, comparing with conventional SPR biosensors, the broad applications of nanoplasmonic biosensors are limited by the difficult and expensive fabrication of nanostructures. We have developed an intensity-modulated, compact SPR biosensor (25 cm × 10 cm × 25 cm) which uses a conventional SPR sensing mechanism and does not require nanostructure fabrication. Calibration from glycerol showed that the compact SPR biosensor offered sensitivity of 9.258 × 10%/RIU and resolution of 8.311 × 10 RIU. We have demonstrated the feasibility of the compact SPR biosensor in lung cancer diagnosis using exosomal epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) as biomarkers. It detected a higher level of exosomal EGFR from A549 nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells than BEAS-2B normal cells. With human serum samples, the compact SPR biosensor detected similar levels of exosomal EGFR in NSCLC patients and normal controls, and higher expression of exosomal PD-L1 in NSCLC patients than normal controls. The compact SPR biosensor showed higher detection sensitivity than ELISA and similar sensing accuracy as ELISA. It is a simple and user-friendly sensing platform, which may serve as an in vitro diagnostic test for cancer.
C18 ceramide plays an important role in the occurrence and development of oral squamous cell carcinoma. However, the function of ceramide synthase 1, a key enzyme in C18 ceramide synthesis, in oral squamous cell carcinoma is still unclear. The aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between ceramide synthase 1 and oral cancer. In this study, we found that the expression of ceramide synthase 1 was downregulated in oral cancer tissues and cell lines. In a mouse oral squamous cell carcinoma model induced by 4-nitroquinolin-1-oxide, ceramide synthase 1 knockout was associated with the severity of oral malignant transformation. Immunohistochemical studies showed significant upregulation of PCNA, MMP2, MMP9, and BCL2 expression and downregulation of BAX expression in the pathological hyperplastic area. In addition, ceramide synthase 1 knockdown promoted cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. Overexpression of CERS1 obtained the opposite effect. Ceramide synthase 1 knockdown caused endoplasmic reticulum stress and induced the VEGFA upregulation. Activating transcription factor 4 is responsible for ceramide synthase 1 knockdown caused VEGFA transcriptional upregulation. In addition, mild endoplasmic reticulum stress caused by ceramide synthase 1 knockdown could induce cisplatin resistance. Taken together, our study suggests that ceramide synthase 1 is downregulated in oral cancer and promotes the aggressiveness of oral squamous cell carcinoma and chemotherapeutic drug resistance.
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