Early discrimination of nasopharyngeal carcinoma based on tissue deoxyribose nucleic acid surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy analysis

Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was employed to detect deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) variations associated with the development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Significant SERS spectral differences between the DNA extracted from early NPC, advanced NPC, and normal nasopharyngeal tissue specimens were observed at 678, 729, 788, 1337, 1421, 1506, and 1573??cm?1, which reflects the genetic variations in NPC. Principal component analysis combined with discriminant function analysis for early NPC discrimination yielded a diagnostic accuracy of 86.8%, 92.3%, and 87.9% for early NPC, advanced NPC, and normal nasopharyngeal tissue DNA, respectively. In this exploratory study, we demonstrated the potential of SERS for early detection of NPC based on the DNA molecular study of biopsy tissues.

A New Detection Method of Oral and Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Based on Multivariate Analysis of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectra of Salivary Exosomes

“…These biomolecules represent major discriminants for HNC diagnostic [15,22,[64][65][66][67]. The elevated levels of proteins and nucleic acids in saliva could be attributed to the increased metabolism of proteins and nucleic acids necessary for abnormal cell division and proliferation and, further, for tumor spreading and progression [20]. Polysaccharides, which are essential energy molecules in cancer metabolism, also present an overexpression in cancer samples [25].…”

“…Moreover, Raman spectra of HNC samples identified changes in thiocyanate, tryptophan, and phenylalanine [19,23,24]. All these changes are specific to the increased cancer-related metabolism and the increased activity of genetic material associated with malignancy [20,25].…”

“…As such, Raman spectroscopy is able to detect biochemical compounds that can be associated with the onset of HNC [19][20][21]. Increases in proteins and nucleic acids and decreases in lipids and carotenoids were associated with malignancy [19,20,22]. Moreover, Raman spectra of HNC samples identified changes in thiocyanate, tryptophan, and phenylalanine [19,23,24].…”