Non-Invasive Cancer Detection Using Affinity Chromatography and SERS
Photo Credit: BENCHAMAT/Shutterstock.com
Researchers from Fujian Normal University, Funzhou, China, have developed a nonâinvasive cancer detection strategy based on gold nanoparticle surface-enhanced raman spectroscopy (SERS) and affinity chromatography (1).
As one of the greatest health burdens across the globe, cancer and all its forms rightly garner a large amount of clinical research attention with non-invasive and early cancer diagnosis being widely touted as necessary elements towards an effective strategy to minimize deaths. This is for obvious reasons with non-invasive procedures being much easier to carry out on a mass scale and early detection greatly increasing survival rates in most cancer cases. One area with potential is modified nucleosides, which are excreted through patient urine. An important biological matrix for determining a patient’s physical state, urinalysis is widely used in disease diagnosis. Its ease of collection aides in its usefulness as well as its ability to be continuously collected throughout an entire treatment process. However, urinary modified nucleosides are present at very low concentrations and their detection in such a complex matrix represents a significant challenge.
To achieve the necessary levels of sensitivity researchers first used affinity chromatography using a phenylboronic acid gel before analyzing samples using SERS and gold nanoparticles as a substrate.
To evaluate the utility of this method, urine samples from three groups of subjects were tested. These included nasopharyngeal cancer patients, esophaegeal cancer patients, and healthy volunteers. Results achieved diagnostic sensitivities above 90% and specificities above 95%, respectively. These results demonstrated the potential of this technique for non-invasive and label-free cancer detection and screening, with researchers currently conducting an inâdepth prospective study to verify the reliability of this new cancer detection method.
Reference
- S. Feng et al., Biosens. Bioelectron.91, 616–622 (2017).
2024 EAS Awardees Showcase Innovative Research in Analytical Science
November 20th 2024Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, and other leading institutions took the stage at the Eastern Analytical Symposium to accept awards and share insights into their research.
Inside the Laboratory: The Richardson Group at the University of South Carolina
November 20th 2024In this edition of “Inside the Laboratory,” Susan Richardson of the University of South Carolina discusses her laboratory’s work with using electron ionization and chemical ionization with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to detect DBPs in complex environmental matrices, and how her work advances environmental analysis.
AI and GenAI Applications to Help Optimize Purification and Yield of Antibodies From Plasma
October 31st 2024Deriving antibodies from plasma products involves several steps, typically starting from the collection of plasma and ending with the purification of the desired antibodies. These are: plasma collection; plasma pooling; fractionation; antibody purification; concentration and formulation; quality control; and packaging and storage. This process results in a purified antibody product that can be used for therapeutic purposes, diagnostic tests, or research. Each step is critical to ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of the final product. Applications of AI/GenAI in many of these steps can significantly help in the optimization of purification and yield of the desired antibodies. Some specific use-cases are: selecting and optimizing plasma units for optimized plasma pooling; GenAI solution for enterprise search on internal knowledge portal; analysing and optimizing production batch profitability, inventory, yields; monitoring production batch key performance indicators for outlier identification; monitoring production equipment to predict maintenance events; and reducing quality control laboratory testing turnaround time.
Infographic: Be confidently audit ready, at any time and reduce failures in pharma QC testing
November 20th 2024Discover how you can simplify the audit preparation process with data integrity dashboards that provide transparency to key actions, and seamlessly track long-term trends and patterns, helping to prevent system suitability failures before they occur with waters_connect Data Intelligence software.
Critical Role of Oligonucleotides in Drug Development Highlighted at EAS Session
November 19th 2024A Monday session at the Eastern Analytical Symposium, sponsored by the Chinese American Chromatography Association, explored key challenges and solutions for achieving more sensitive oligonucleotide analysis.
