Any cancer – in 10 minutes
A universal ten-minute test for cancer diseases is proposed
Scientists are developing a test that should determine the presence of a malignant tumor in the patient's blood. The creators claim that the technique will allow detecting cells of any type of tumors, and the procedure will take only ten minutes.
Although the work on the method is not finished yet, it promises to greatly simplify the detection of cancer.
The researchers described in the journal Nature Communications a picture of DNA methylation in breast cancer, prostate, colorectal cancer and lymphoma cells. And also showed how this characteristic of cancer cell DNA affects the properties of the molecule (Ibn Sina et al., Epigenetically reprogrammed methylation landscape drives the DNA self-assembly and serves as a universal cancer biomarker – VM).
"The main advantage of this method is that it is very cheap and extremely easy to use," says Laura Carrascosa from the University of Queensland (in a press release Nano–signature discovery could revolutionize cancer diagnosis - VM). The sensitivity of the test is about 90%, meaning it will detect about 90 out of 100 cases of cancer. The test should play the role of an initial check for the presence of cancer, and then in case of a positive result, doctors will prescribe additional studies.
"Our technique can be a screening tool to inform doctors that a patient may have cancer, but then follow–up studies with other methods will be required to determine the type of cancer and stage," explains Laura Carrascosa.
The test is based on the discovery of scientists at the University of Queensland, who found that the DNA of a tumor cell and ordinary DNA stick to metal surfaces in different ways. The difference is explained by the fact that DNA in normal cells is usually subject to methylation, that is, methyl groups are attached to the molecule in many places, which serve as a means of regulating gene activity. In tumor cells, the DNA molecule is mostly devoid of methyl groups, and they are found only in certain places on it. This made it possible to develop a test that distinguishes healthy and tumor cells even by small fragments of DNA entering the blood.
Practically, the test is that suspicious DNA is added to water containing gold nanoparticles. Initially, this solution has a pink color. If there is healthy DNA in it, then by binding to nanoparticles, it causes the color of the solution to change to blue. If it is tumor DNA, the color of the solution does not change. The result can be assessed with the naked eye in just a few minutes.
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