Fluorescence polarisation changes in lymphocyte cytoplasm as a diagnostic test for breast carcinoma

New Scm (Structuredness of the Cytoplasmatic Matrix)-Based Approach in Breast Cancer Detection

Aims and Background

We evaluate the possibility to use a combination of techniques such as lymphocyte stimulation and the Cell Scan instrument for early detection of breast cancer. This method can detect differences in lymphocytes activation in the presence or absence of cancer.

Methods

The Cell Scan is a static cytometer system able to examine cellular membrane polarization. We screened 88 women with benign breast lesions, 207 women with mammary carcinoma and 325 healthy blood donors. After lymphocytes separation, each blood sample was incubated with encephalitogenic factor (EF), phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and Breast Antigen (BrAg) then SCM test was performed.

Results

Positivity was 50% among breast cancer patients, 34% among women affected by benign disease and 27% and 22% respectively among healthy female and male controls with an increase of the specific predictivity of the test during the period of ovulation. A significant difference ( P <0.0001) was observed between healthy donors and breast cancer patients.

Conclusions

This results suggest that the Cell Scan test could be useful to investigate patient's immunogenicity to molecules known to be involved in tumor development and progression, such as oncogene or suppressor gene products, which could be appropriate targets for immune-derived therapeutic approaches.

Implication of caspase-3 and granzyme B expression and activity in spleenocytes of ehrlich ascites carcinoma mice subjected to immunotherapy

Background

Caspase-3 and granzyme B were claimed as apoptotic manipulative enzymes.

Aims

The present study was to determine the enzymes expression and activity in cancer and cancer immune therapeutic status and the possible association to cancer common pathological signs targeting the improvement of therapeutic conditions.

Material and Methods

Mice were immunized with cell lyaste or cell lysate + CKI in the right thigh and challenged with live cells of ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) in the left thigh. The expression and activity of both enzymes in the spleenocytes derived from different subjects (normal, EAC and cell lysate or cell lysate + CKI immunized mice) after cultured with EAC viable cells were determined by colorimetric assay and western blot analysis. In addition, the subjects DNA ladder and serum metalloproteases (MMP 2 and 9) zymography were observed.

Results

The experimental data revealed over expression of caspase3 and granzyme B in the groups of cell lysate or cell lysate + CKI immunized mice compared to control while down expression were recorded in the EAC subject. The over expression of the 2 enzymes were accompanied with increases in the activities of caspase3 and granzyme B, changes in DNA fragmentation and inhibition of metalloproteases.

Conclusion

It could be suggested that, the parameter estimation within the present experimental framework could identify the efficiency of therapeutic vaccine protocols and elucidate the impact of CKI adjuvant with vaccines therapy.

Application of a static fluorescence-based cytometer (the CellScan) in basic cytometric studies, clinical pharmacology, oncology and clinical immunology

The CellScan apparatus is a laser scanning cytometer enabling repetitive fluorescence intensity (FI) and polarization (FP) measurements in living cells, as a means of monitoring lymphocyte activation. The CellScan may serve as a tool for diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) as well as other autoimmune diseases by monitoring FP changes in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) following exposure to autoantigenic stimuli. Changes in FI and FP in atherosclerotic patients' PBLs following exposure to various stimuli have established the role of the immune system in atherosclerotic disease. The CellScan has been evaluated as a diagnostic tool for drug-allergy, based on FP reduction in PBLs following incubation with allergenic drugs. FI and FP changes in cancer cells have been found to be well correlated with the cytotoxic effect of anti-neoplastic drugs. In conclusion, the CellScan has a variety of applications in cell biology, immunology, cancer research and clinical pharmacology.

Early detection of malignant process in benign lesions of breast tumor by measurements of changes in structuredness of cytoplasmic matrix in circulating lymphocytes (SCM test) reinduced in vitro by specific tumor antigen

Early detection is crucial for successful treatment of all types of cancer. The specificity and sensitivity of the current methods vary from 50% to 80%. The use of specific tumor antigens and cytometric technology has resulted in the development of a new procedure for the early detection of breast tumors. This new method is reported. The test utilizes static cytometry, which records polarization and intensity changes in fluorescent light emitted from each individual lymphocyte obtained from tumor-bearing patients stimulated by the relevant specific tumor antigen. Using MUC-1/SEC as the specific antigen, we detected breast tumors with 85% specificity and 81% sensitivity in 137 breast tumor-bearing women. A significant linear correlation was found between the SCM test and the conventional classification of relative risk for breast cancer in benign lesions, suggesting that this is a precise method that could be used in mass screening for early detection of breast cancer.

Monitoring of Intracellular Enzyme Kinetic Characteristics of Peripheral Mononuclear Cells in Breast Cancer Patients

A new methodology for the detection of functional response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells against breast cancer (BC) antigens was developed. The method is based on cellular enzymatic activity measurements, using a fluorogenic substrate. We used this method to estimate the kinetic activity of lymphocytes derived from cancer patients and healthy donors. The aim of the study was to determine a possible correlation between the basic characteristics (K(m) and V(max)) of biochemical enzymatic reactions in live peripheral white mononuclear cells and common clinical-pathological characteristics in BC patients. Our method shows that the enzymatic activity, upon interaction with mitogen or tumor antigens, of the peripheral blood cells in BC patients is different from the enzymatic reactions in healthy individuals. This holds true in the early stages, and the difference persists throughout all of the stages of the disease. This difference is manifested, primarily, by an increase in the K(m) values after cell incubation with tumor tissue. It was also demonstrated that higher K(m) values of tumor tissue-activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells are associated with a better prognostic status of the BC patients (lymph node-negative tumors, hormone receptor preservation, and the absence of Her-2/neu protein overexpression). Thus, the present methodology may serve as an additional criterion for prognosis and monitoring, both in BC patients, and in individuals associated with high cancer risk.

The trace and subgrouping of lymphocyte activation by dynamic fluorescence intensity and polarization measurements

Cell activation involves conformational changes of cytosolic enzymes, and/or their regulatory proteins, as well as intracellular matrix re-organization. In this work, these changes were monitored by dynamic measurements of fluorescence polarization in single cells incubated with or without phytohaemagglutinin (PHA), using the Cellscan mark S (CS-S) cytometer. This instrument and the procedure used proved to be a powerful tool for distinguishing subpopulations of cells. Grouping of cells by their staining rates (the time rate of change of the fluorescence intensity) yielded three major subgroups. For each subgroup, the fluorescence depolarization (FDP) induced by the incubation with PHA was measured. The kinetics of the subgroups indicate that the major FDP is contributed by the cells with the lowest staining rate. This FDP is approximately 1.5 times greater than that of a bulk population. It is believed that the analysis of kinetic probing might yield an important and more sensitive method for functional marking of subgroups of cells by their response characteristics.

Cell activation influences cell staining kinetics

Stimulation of cells has so far been observed, among other methods, by the decrease of the intracellular fluorescein fluorescence polarization (IFFP). It is shown that the rate constant of leakage of the fluorescent marker out of the cells increases with stimulation much more significantly than the polarization decreases; thus it might provide a more sensitive method to observe cells stimulation. It is also shown that due to negligible leakage of the marker out of the cells shortly after initiation of the staining of the cell suspension, the fluorescein fluorescence polarization (FFP) of the cell suspension, is very close to IFFP.

Fluorescence depolarization as an early measure of T lymphocyte stimulation

We have used the Cellscan, an apparatus capable of measuring optical properties of individual cells, to study changes in fluorescence polarization associated with T cell stimulation. We show that the fluorescence polarization of human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) labeled with fluorescein diacetate (FDA) is markedly reduced upon exposure to the mitogenic lectins phytohemagglutinin (PHA), concanavalin A (ConA), or to phorbol esters. Methyl alpha-D-mannopyranoside (alphaMM) is able to reverse the depolarizing effect induced by ConA as long as the cells are not committed to proliferate. H7 and staurosporin, both inhibitors of protein kinase C (PKC), inhibit the depolarization induced by PHA. The mitogen-induced depolarization is dependent on metabolic energy. The results support the use of fluorescence depolarization of FDA-labeled PBL, monitored by the Cellscan, as a sensitive means of measuring early lymphocyte stimulation.

Adaptation of the cellscan technique for the SCM test in breast cancer

The value of the SCM (Structuredness of Cytoplasmic Matrix) cancer test, a procedure based on the detection of differences in lymphocyte activation in the presence and absence of cancer, has remained controversial, with inconsistent results having been reported among investigators. The Cellscan, a high-precision static cytometer system, has been designed to perform the SCM test; the apparatus facilitates the polarisation measurements and can examine cells which have been separated by simpler procedures than were originally described. In this study, using methods and diagnostic criteria adapted for the Cellscan system in a hospital environment, the SCM test correctly classified over 90% (76/80) of patients with breast cancer and differentiated over 90% (72/73) of individuals without cancer.