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IMCB Team Identifies 'missing' Protein that Triggers Mutation in Cancer Cell.

Since cancer becomes the most deadly disease to our health, research on early detection on cancer cells is necessary for clinical treatment. The combination of microfluidic device with cell biology has shown a unique method for cancer cell research. In the present review, recent development on microfluidic chip for cancer cell detection and diagnosis will be addressed. Some typical microfluidic chips focussed on cancer cells and their advantages for different kinds of cancer cell detection and diagnosis will be listed, and the cell capture methods within the microfluidics will be simultaneously mentioned. Then the potential direction of microfluidic chip on cancer cell detection and diagnosis in the future is also discussed.

Two novel axial-disubstituted silicon(IV) phthalocyanines (compounds 1 and 2) have been prepared by introducing paracetamol (a common antipyretic analgesic) or its isomer 4-hydroxyphenylacetamide at the axial positions of silicon(IV) phthalocyanine, respectively. Their photophysical and biological properties have been examined. Both compounds are highly soluble and exhibit very similar absorption spectra in N, N-dimethylformamide, which is typical for non-aggregated phthalocyanines. Both compounds are photocytotoxic against HT29 human colon adenocarcinoma cells. Compound 2 shows a very high in vitro photodynamic activity, with the IC₅₀ value down to 15 nM. In contrast, compound 1 exhibits a much lower in vitro photodynamic activity toward HT29 cells, which can be attributed to its higher aggregating trend in the biological medium and lower singlet oxygen quantum yield.

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy can resolve the chemical components and distribution of living biological systems in a label-free manner and is favored in several disciplines. Current CARS microscopes typically use bulky, high-performance solid-state lasers, which are expensive and sensitive to environmental changes. With their relatively low cost and environmental sensitivity, supercontinuum fiber (SF) lasers with a small footprint have found increasing use in biomedical applications. Upon these features, in this paper, we homebuilt a low-cost CARS microscope based on a SF laser module (scCARS microscope). This SF laser module is specially customized by adding a time-synchronized seed source channel to the SF laser to form a dual-channel output laser. The performance of the scCARS microscope is evaluated with dimethyl sulfoxide, whose results confirm a spatial resolution of better than 500nm and a detection sensitivity of millimolar concentrations. The dual-color imaging capability is further demonstrated by imaging different species of mixed microspheres. We finally explore the potential of our scCARS microscope by mapping lipid droplets in different cancer cells and corneal stromal lenses.

Nucleic acid (NA)-functionalized nanomaterials (NMs) have received considerable attention in recent years. The use of nucleic acid (DNA/RNA) for surface functionalization of NMs offers the ability to directly address desired targets and coat NMs with biocompatible polymers, such as poly [(ethylene)] glycol (PEG) and polyacrylamide (PA), enhancing the utility of these complexes in biomedicine. In particular, the target-specific recognition capacity of surface-functionalized NMs has opened up new avenues for disease diagnosis and therapy. This review focuses on the biological applications of a special type of nucleic acid, termed aptamer, conjugated with a variety of NMs for a wide spectrum of applications in nanobiomedicine.

Separation of rare cells such as circulating cancer and fetal cells from blood has potential importance in disease monitoring and prevention. In this paper, we report a new method of cancer cells separation from patient blood by inertial focusing technique. A design and simulation of ascending and descending curvilinear microchannels for separation of particles resembling cancer cells have been presented. In simulation, polystyrene particles have been used which represent the size of red blood cell (RBC), white blood cell (WBC) and cancer cells. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) design and simulation of ascending and descending microchannels is used for cell separation. The simulation was carried out in two stages including focusing and separation. The ascending curvilinear channel design demonstrated favorable focusing and separation. Separation with 100% purity and efficiency of the unwanted particle was achieved at Reynolds number (R_e) = 8.50 and velocity 0.105 m/s. In case of descending curvilinear channel, cell separation was not good. Considering cancer cells size about 15 μm, our proposed ascending microchannel is a good candidate for cancer cells separation from blood.