Characterization of CD133+/CD44+ human prostate cancer stem cells with ATR-FTIR spectroscopy

Structural changes in amide I and amide II regions of PCOS women analyzed by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy

The etiology of PCOS is complex and frequently mis or undiagnosed, which may enhance morbidity and reduce the quality of life. Attenuated total reflection- Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy examines the structural fingerprints of the biochemical compounds and can provide distinct FTIR spectra of the PCOS cases and controls. The present study recruited 61 PCOS cases and 38 control women. The student's t-test was used to compare BMI, WHR, and lipid profile. The FTIR spectral region was compared among both groups using the Mann-Whitney U test and multivariate analysis involved principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). FTIR spectra of different phenotypes of PCOS were also analyzed using multivariate analysis. In univariate analysis, PCOS women had significantly higher WHR (p = 0.007), BMI (p = 0.04), triglycerides (p = 0.04), and VLDL (p = 0.02) than the controls. The spectral regions of amide I (1700-1600 cm-1) and amide II (1580-1480 cm-1), were significantly greater in the PCOS group than in the controls (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively). The PCA and HCA revealed a distinct molecular fingerprint for phenotype A (PCOM + OA + HA) and phenotype B (HA + OA). Our study postulated that the spectral regions of amide I and amide II can distinguish between PCOS cases and control women and it may be used for the diagnosis of cases.

Advancements in medical research: Exploring Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy for tissue, cell, and hair sample analysis

BACKGROUND

Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful analytical tool in medical research, offering non-invasive and precise examination of the molecular composition of biological samples. The primary objective of this review is to underscore the benefits of FTIR spectroscopy in medicinal research, emphasizing its ability to delineate molecular fingerprints and assist in the identification of biochemical structures and key peaks in biological samples.

METHODS

This review comprehensively explores the diverse applications of FTIR spectroscopy in medical investigations, with a specific focus on its utility in analyzing tissue, cells, and hair samples. Various sources, including Google Scholar, PubMed, WorledCat and Scopus, were utilized to conduct this comprehensive literature review.

RESULTS

Recent advancements showcase the versatility of FTIR spectroscopy in elucidating cellular and molecular processes, facilitating disease diagnostics, and enabling treatment monitoring. Notably, FTIR spectroscopy has found significant utility in clinical assessment, particularly in screening counterfeit medicines, owing to its user-friendly operation and minimal sample preparation requirements. Furthermore, customs officials can leverage this technique for preliminary analysis of suspicious samples.

CONCLUSION

This review aims to bridge a gap in the literature and serve as a valuable resource for future research endeavors in FTIR spectroscopy within the medical domain. Additionally, it presents fundamental concepts of FTIR spectroscopy and spectral data interpretation, highlighting its utility as a tool for molecular analysis using Mid-Infrared (MIR) radiation.

Biomolecular fingerprints of the effect of zoledronic acid on prostate cancer stem cells: Comparison of 2D and 3D cell culture models

Revealing the potential of candidate drugs against different cancer types without disrupting normal cells depends on the drug mode of action. In the current study, the drug response of prostate cancer stem cells (PCSCs) to zoledronic acid (ZOL) grown in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) culture systems was compared using Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy which is a vibrational spectroscopic technique, supporting by biochemical assays and imaging techniques. Based on our data, in 2D cell culture conditions, the ZOL treatment of PCSCs isolated according to both C133 and CD44 cell surface properties induced early/late apoptosis and suppressed migration ability. The CD133 gene expression and protein levels were altered, depending on culture systems. CD133 expression was significantly reduced in 2D cells upon ZOL treatment. FT-IR data revealed that the integrity, fluidity, and ordering/disordering states of the cell membrane and nucleic acid content were altered in both 2D and 3D cells after ZOL treatment. Regular protein structures decrease in 2D cells while glycogen and protein contents increase in 3D cells, indicating a more pronounced cytotoxic effect of ZOL for 2D cells. Untreated 3D PCSCs exhibited an even different spectral profile associated with IR signals of lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and glycogen in comparison to untreated 2D cells. Our study revealed significant differences in the drug response and cellular constituents between 2D and 3D cells. Exploring molecular targets and/or drug-action mechanisms is significant in cancer treatment approaches; thus, FT-IR spectroscopy can be successfully applied as a novel drug-screening method in clinical research.

Tumor microenvironment-induced tumor cell plasticity: relationship with hypoxic stress and impact on tumor resistance

The role of tumor interaction with stromal components during carcinogenesis is crucial for the design of efficient cancer treatment approaches. It is widely admitted that tumor hypoxic stress is associated with tumor aggressiveness and thus impacts susceptibility and resistance to different types of treatments. Notable biological processes that hypoxia functions in include its regulation of tumor heterogeneity and plasticity. While hypoxia has been reported as a major player in tumor survival and dissemination regulation, the significance of hypoxia inducible factors in cancer stem cell development remains poorly understood. Several reports indicate that the emergence of cancer stem cells in addition to their phenotype and function within a hypoxic tumor microenvironment impacts cancer progression. In this respect, evidence showed that cancer stem cells are key elements of intratumoral heterogeneity and more importantly are responsible for tumor relapse and escape to treatments. This paper briefly reviews our current knowledge of the interaction between tumor hypoxic stress and its role in stemness acquisition and maintenance. Our review extensively covers the influence of hypoxia on the formation and maintenance of cancer stem cells and discusses the potential of targeting hypoxia-induced alterations in the expression and function of the so far known stem cell markers in cancer therapy approaches. We believe that a better and integrated understanding of the effect of hypoxia on stemness during carcinogenesis might lead to new strategies for exploiting hypoxia-associated pathways and their targeting in the clinical setting in order to overcome resistance mechanisms. More importantly, at the present time, efforts are oriented towards the design of innovative therapeutical approaches that specifically target cancer stem cells.

Identification of acute myeloid leukemia by infrared difference spectrum of peripheral blood

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a high mortality and recurrence rates hematologic malignancy. Thus, whatever early detection or subsequent visit are both of high significance. Traditional AML diagnosis is conducted via peripheral blood (PB) smear and bone marrow (BM) aspiration. But BM aspiration is a painful burden for patients especially in early detection or subsequent visit. Herein, the use of PB to evaluate and identify the leukemia characteristics will be an attractive alternative source for early detection or subsequent visit. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a time- and cost-effective approach to reveal the disease-related molecular features and variations. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no attempts using infrared spectroscopic signatures of PB to replace BM for identifying AML. In this work, we are the first to develop a rapid and minimally invasive method to identify AML by infrared difference spectrum (IDS) of PB with only 6 characteristic wavenumbers. We dissect the leukemia-related spectroscopic signatures of three subtypes of leukemia cells (U937, HL-60, THP-1) by IDS, revealing biochemical molecular information about leukemia for the first time. Furthermore, the novel study links cellular features to complex features of blood system which demonstrates the sensitivity and specificity with IDS method. On this basis, BM and PB of AML patients and healthy controls were provided to parallel comparison. The IDS of BM and PB combined with principal component analysis method revealing that the leukemic components in BM and PB can be described by IDS peaks of PCA loadings, respectively. It is demonstrated that the leukemic IDS signatures of BM can be replaced by the leukemic IDS signatures of PB. In addition, the IDS signatures of leukemia cells are reflected in PB of AML patients with peaks of 1629, 1610, 1604, 1536, 1528 and 1404 cm^-1 for the first time as well. To this end, we access the leukemic signatures of IDS peaks to compare the PB of AMLs and healthy controls. It is confirmed that the leukemic components can be detected from PB of AML and distinguished into positive (100%) and negative (100%) groups successfully by IDS classifier which is a novel and unique spectral classifier. This work demonstrates the potential use of IDS as a powerful tool to detect leukemia via PB which can release subjects' pain remarkably.

Palmitate-Induced Cardiac Lipotoxicity Is Relieved by the Redox-Active Motif of SELENOT through Improving Mitochondrial Function and Regulating Metabolic State

Cardiac lipotoxicity is an important contributor to cardiovascular complications during obesity. Given the fundamental role of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident Selenoprotein T (SELENOT) for cardiomyocyte differentiation and protection and for the regulation of glucose metabolism, we took advantage of a small peptide (PSELT), derived from the SELENOT redox-active motif, to uncover the mechanisms through which PSELT could protect cardiomyocytes against lipotoxicity. To this aim, we modeled cardiac lipotoxicity by exposing H9c2 cardiomyocytes to palmitate (PA). The results showed that PSELT counteracted PA-induced cell death, lactate dehydrogenase release, and the accumulation of intracellular lipid droplets, while an inert form of the peptide (I-PSELT) lacking selenocysteine was not active against PA-induced cardiomyocyte death. Mechanistically, PSELT counteracted PA-induced cytosolic and mitochondrial oxidative stress and rescued SELENOT expression that was downregulated by PA through FAT/CD36 (cluster of differentiation 36/fatty acid translocase), the main transporter of fatty acids in the heart. Immunofluorescence analysis indicated that PSELT also relieved the PA-dependent increase in CD36 expression, while in SELENOT-deficient cardiomyocytes, PA exacerbated cell death, which was not mitigated by exogenous PSELT. On the other hand, PSELT improved mitochondrial respiration during PA treatment and regulated mitochondrial biogenesis and dynamics, preventing the PA-provoked decrease in PGC1-α and increase in DRP-1 and OPA-1. These findings were corroborated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), revealing that PSELT improved the cardiomyocyte and mitochondrial ultrastructures and restored the ER network. Spectroscopic characterization indicated that PSELT significantly attenuated infrared spectral-related macromolecular changes (i.e., content of lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates) and also prevented the decrease in membrane fluidity induced by PA. Our findings further delineate the biological significance of SELENOT in cardiomyocytes and indicate the potential of its mimetic PSELT as a protective agent for counteracting cardiac lipotoxicity.

ATR-FTIR spectroscopy of plasma supported by multivariate analysis discriminates multiple sclerosis disease

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases showing various symptoms both of physical and cognitive type. In this work, we used attenuated total reflection Fourier transformed infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy to analyze plasma samples for discriminating MS patients from healthy control individuals, and identifying potential spectral biomarkers helping the diagnosis through a quick non-invasive blood test. The cohort of the study consists of 85 subjects, including 45 MS patients and 40 healthy controls. The differences in the spectral features both in the fingerprint region (1800-900 cm^-1) and in the high region (3050-2800 cm^-1) of the infrared spectra were highlighted also with the support of different chemometric methods, to capture the most significant wavenumbers for the differentiation. The results show an increase in the lipid/protein ratio in MS patients, indicating changes in the level (metabolism) of these molecular components in the plasma. Moreover, the multivariate tools provided a promising rate of success in the diagnosis, with 78% sensitivity and 83% specificity obtained through the random forest model in the fingerprint region. The MS diagnostic tools based on biomarkers identification on blood (and blood component, like plasma or serum) are very challenging and the specificity and sensitivity values obtained in this work are very encouraging. Overall, the results obtained suggest that ATR-FTIR spectroscopy on plasma samples, requiring minimal or no manipulation, coupled with statistical multivariate approaches, is a promising analytical tool to support MS diagnosis through the identification of spectral biomarkers.

Plasma versus Serum Analysis by FTIR Spectroscopy to Capture the Human Physiological State

Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy of serum and plasma has been highly explored for medical diagnosis, due to its general simplicity, and high sensitivity and specificity. To evaluate the plasma and serum molecular fingerprint, as obtained by FTIR spectroscopy, to acquire the system metabolic state, serum and plasma spectra were compared to characterize the metabolic state of 30 human volunteers, between 90 days consumption of green tea extract rich in Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). Both plasma and serum spectra enabled the high impact of EGCG consumption on the biofluid spectra to be observed, as analyzed by the spectra principal component analysis, hierarchical-cluster analysis, and univariate data analysis. Plasma spectra resulted in the prediction of EGCG consumption with a slightly higher specificity, accuracy, and precision, also pointing to a higher number of significant spectral bands that were different between the 90 days period. Despite this, the lipid regions of the serum spectra were more affected by EGCG consumption than the corresponding plasma spectra. Therefore, in general, if no specific compound analysis is highlighted, plasma is in general the advised biofluid to capture by FTIR spectroscopy the general metabolic state. If the lipid content of the biofluid is relevant, serum spectra could present some advantages over plasma spectra.

Vibrational Biospectroscopy: An Alternative Approach to Endometrial Cancer Diagnosis and Screening

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the sixth most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of death among women worldwide. Early detection and treatment are associated with a favourable prognosis and reduction in mortality. Unlike other common cancers, however, screening strategies lack the required sensitivity, specificity and accuracy to be successfully implemented in clinical practice and current diagnostic approaches are invasive, costly and time consuming. Such limitations highlight the unmet need to develop diagnostic and screening alternatives for EC, which should be accurate, rapid, minimally invasive and cost-effective. Vibrational spectroscopic techniques, Mid-Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy and Raman, exploit the atomic vibrational absorption induced by interaction of light and a biological sample, to generate a unique spectral response: a “biochemical fingerprint”. These are non-destructive techniques and, combined with multivariate statistical analysis, have been shown over the last decade to provide discrimination between cancerous and healthy samples, demonstrating a promising role in both cancer screening and diagnosis. The aim of this review is to collate available evidence, in order to provide insight into the present status of the application of vibrational biospectroscopy in endometrial cancer diagnosis and screening, and to assess future prospects.

Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy to Analyse Human Blood over the Last 20 Years: A Review towards Lab-on-a-Chip Devices

Since microorganisms are evolving rapidly, there is a growing need for a new, fast, and precise technique to analyse blood samples and distinguish healthy from pathological samples. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy can provide information related to the biochemical composition and how it changes when a pathological state arises. FTIR spectroscopy has undergone rapid development over the last decades with a promise of easier, faster, and more impartial diagnoses within the biomedical field. However, thus far only a limited number of studies have addressed the use of FTIR spectroscopy in this field. This paper describes the main concepts related to FTIR and presents the latest research focusing on FTIR spectroscopy technology and its integration in lab-on-a-chip devices and their applications in the biological field. This review presents the potential use of FTIR to distinguish between healthy and pathological samples, with examples of early cancer detection, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) detection, and routine blood analysis, among others. Finally, the study also reflects on the features of FTIR technology that can be applied in a lab-on-a-chip format and further developed for small healthcare devices that can be used for point-of-care monitoring purposes. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other published study has reviewed these topics. Therefore, this analysis and its results will fill this research gap.

Targeted Delivery of Therapeutics to Urological Cancer Stem Cells

Urological cancer refers to cancer in organs of the urinary system and the male reproductive system. It mainly includes prostate cancer, bladder cancer, renal cancer, etc., seriously threatening patients' survival. Although there are many advances in the treatment of urological cancer, approved targeted therapies often result in tumor recurrence and therapy failure. An increasing amount of evidence indicated that cancer stem cells (CSCs) with tumor-initiating ability were the source of treatment failure in urological cancer. The development of CSCstargeted strategy can provide a possibility for the complete elimination of urological cancer. This review is based on a search of PubMed, Google scholar and NIH database (http://ClinicalTrials.gov/) for English language articles containing the terms: "biomarkers", "cancer stem cells", "targeting/targeted therapy", "prostate cancer", bladder cancer" and "kidney cancer". We summarized the biomarkers and stem cell features of the prostate, bladder and renal CSCs, outlined the targeted strategies for urological CSCs from signaling pathways, cytokines, angiogenesis, surface markers, elimination therapy, differentiation therapy, immunotherapy, microRNA, nanomedicine, etc., and highlighted the prospects and future challenges in this research field.

Cancer Stem Cell Functions in Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Comprehensive Therapeutic Strategies

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a significant cause of cancer-related mortality owing to resistance to traditional treatments and tumor recurrence after therapy, which leads to poor therapeutic outcomes. Cancer stem cells (CSC) are a small subset of tumor cells with the capability to influence self-renewal, differentiation, and tumorigenesis. A number of surface markers for liver cancer stem cell (LCSC) subpopulations (EpCAM, CD133, CD44, CD13, CD90, OV-6, CD47, and side populations) in HCC have been identified. LCSCs play critical roles in regulating HCC stemness, self-renewal, tumorigenicity, metastasis, recurrence, and therapeutic resistance via genetic mutations, epigenetic disruption, signaling pathway dysregulation, or alterations microenvironment. Accumulating studies have shown that biomarkers for LCSCs contribute to diagnosis and prognosis prediction of HCC, supporting their utility in clinical management and development of therapeutic strategies. Preclinical and clinical analyses of therapeutic approaches for HCC using small molecule inhibitors, oncolytic measles viruses, and anti-surface marker antibodies have demonstrated selective, efficient, and safe targeting of LCSC populations. The current review focuses on recent reports on the influence of LCSCs on HCC stemness, tumorigenesis, and multiple drug resistance (MDR), along with LCSC-targeted therapeutic strategies for HCC.