(Press-News.org) Tiny gold particles can help doctors detect tumor cells circulating in the blood of patients with head and neck cancer, researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech have found.
The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is an emerging technique that can allow oncologists to monitor patients with cancer for metastasis or to evaluate the progress of their treatment. The gold particles, which are embedded with dyes allowing their detection by laser spectroscopy, could enhance this technique's specificity by reducing the number of false positives.
The results are published online in the journal Cancer Research.
One challenge with detecting CTCs is separating out signals from white blood cells, which are similarly sized as tumor cells and can stick to the same antibodies normally used to identify tumor cells. Commercially available devices trap CTCs using antibody-coated magnetic beads, and technicians must stain the trapped cells with several antibodies to avoid falsely identifying white blood cells as tumor cells.
Emory and Georgia Tech researchers show that polymer-coated and dye-studded gold particles, directly linked to a growth factor peptide rather than an antibody, can detect circulating tumor cells in the blood of patients with head and neck cancer.
“The key technological advance here is our finding that polymer-coated gold nanoparticles that are conjugated with low molecular weight peptides such as EGF are much less sticky than particles conjugated to whole antibodies,” says Shuming Nie, PhD, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “This effect has led to a major improvement in discriminating tumor cells from non-tumor cells in the blood.”
The particles are linked to EGF (epithelial growth factor), whose counterpart EGFR (epithelial growth factor receptor) is over-produced on the surfaces of several types of tumor cells.
Upon laser illumination, the particles display a sharp fingerprint-like pattern that is specific to the dye, because the gold enhances the signal coming from the dyes. This suggests that several types of nanoparticles could be combined to gain more information about the growth characteristics of the tumor cells. In addition, measuring CTC levels may be sensitive enough to distinguish patients with localized disease from those with metastatic disease.
“Nanoparticles could be instrumental in modifying the process so that circulating tumor cells can be detected without separating the tumor cells from normal blood cells,” Nie says. “We’ve demonstrated that one tumor cell out of approximately one to ten million normal cells can be detected this way.”
In collaboration with oncologists at Winship Cancer Institute, researchers used nanoparticles to test for CTCs in blood samples from 19 patients with head and neck cancer. Of these patients, 17 had positive signals for CTCs in their blood. The two with low signals were verified to have no circulating cells by a different technique.
“Although the results have not been compared or validated with current CTC detection methods, our ‘one-tube’ SERS technology could be faster and lower in costs than other detection methods,” says Dong Moon Shin, MD, professor of hematology and oncology and otolaryngology, associate director of academic development for Winship Cancer Institute and director of the Winship Cancer Institute Chemoprevention Program. “We need to validate this pilot study by continuing with larger groups of patients and comparing with other tests.”
###
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2011/01/03/0008-5472.CAN-10-3069.abstract
END
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. – Home-based physical therapy to improve the strength and balance of stroke survivors works about as well to get them walking again as treadmill training done in a physical therapy lab, according to the results of a study presented today by a Duke researcher at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference.
"We have been working for years in rehabilitation to develop the most effective interventions for walking recovery," said Pamela Woods Duncan, Ph.D., PT, professor in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Division at Duke University ...
Frozen credit markets are adversely impacting the multi-billion dollar franchising industry. The lack of bank loans for franchised businesses is the major factor preventing the sale of new franchises. Further, this national credit crunch is stopping the re-sale of existing franchises, from franchisee to franchisee.
"Transfers (re-sales) are a healthy part of every franchise system. But the nation's lack of bank lending to buyers of existing franchises threatens the ability of franchise systems to rejuvenate their networks through new franchisees. This reduction in transfers ...
A unique new probe based on luciferase, the enzyme that gives fireflies their glow, enables researchers to monitor hydrogen peroxide levels in mice and thereby track the progression of infectious diseases or cancerous tumors without harming the animals or even having to shave their fur. Developed by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, this new bioluminescent probe has already provided the first direct experimental evidence that hydrogen peroxide is continuously made even in a healthy ...
Konnessi LLC, a Rhode Island web design and marketing strategies company, has relocated its Providence offices into the Churchill and Banks building at 10 Greene Street. The move, which took effect on January 1, 2011, marks not only a major upgrade in office facilities and capabilities for the company, but also a migration deeper into the downtown Providence district.
Founded recently in 2010, the RI web design firm Konnessi (which in Maltese means, "connected") has seen exponential growth both in employees and in clientele, all in just under a year of existence. With ...
Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are two to three times more likely than children without the disorder to develop serious substance abuse problems in adolescence and adulthood, according to a study by UCLA psychologists and colleagues at the University of South Carolina.
"This greater risk for children with ADHD applies to boys and girls, it applies across race and ethnicity — the findings were very consistent," said Steve S. Lee, a UCLA assistant professor of psychology and lead author of the study. "The greater risk for developing significant ...
Has Valentine's Day become post-racial? Not yet, it seems.
New research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that when it comes to dating, cyberspace is as segregated as the real world. Data gathered from more than 1 million profiles of singles looking for love online show that whites overwhelmingly prefer to date members of their own race, while blacks, especially men, are far more likely to cross the race barrier in hopes of being struck by Cupid's arrow.
UC Berkeley researchers analyzed the racial preferences and online activity of people from the ...
Sitrof Technologies is pleased announced the end customer, Copernicus Group IRB (CGIRB) was named a finalist for the 2011 AIIM Best Practices Award. The Carl E. Nelson Best Practices Award was established to recognize excellence in information management.
Sitrof Technologies implementation of Xerox Corporation's (NYSE:XRX) DocuShare enterprise content management (ECM) was recognized as a finalist in the Small Company category for their work in transforming Copernicus Group IRB into a paperless company. CGIRB is now 96% paperless after the 2 year implementation. The paperless ...
Troy, N.Y. – Peter Fox and James Hendler of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are calling for scientists to take a few tips from the users of the World Wide Web when presenting their data to the public and other scientists in the Feb. 11 issue of Science magazine. Fox and Hendler, both professors within the Tetherless World Research Constellation at Rensselaer, outline a new vision for the visualization of scientific data in a perspective piece titled "Changing the Equation on Scientific Data Visualization."
As the researchers explain, visualizations provide a means to ...
CORVALLIS, Ore. — The application of a naturally occurring pheromone to honey bee test colonies increases colony growth resulting in stronger hives overall, according to a new study conducted by scientists at Oregon State University and Texas A&M University.
The study, which appeared this week in the journal, PLoS ONE, comes amid national concern over the existence of honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) – a combination of events that result in the death of a bee colony. The causes behind CCD remain unknown, but researchers are focusing on four possible contributing ...
GREENBELT, Md. -- The NASA National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) climate/weather satellite is undergoing flight environmental testing at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp's production and test facility in Boulder, Colo.
The NPP satellite began environmental testing in November 2010 and has successfully completed vibration, acoustics and shock environments. In addition, the electromagnetic compatibility/electromagnetic interference testing was completed in January 2011. Currently the satellite is undergoing ...
