A team of researchers headed by Professor Ona at Kyushu University have developed a high sensitive, non-invasive and label-free sensing technology that can predict anti-metabolic and anti-cancer syndrome compounds in physiological concentrations.
The technology developed by the researchers is capable of sensing dynamic cellular reactions and can reliably predict the efficacy within an hour of the compound addition. The results obtained in the process correlate to chemosensitivity tests that can be quantitatively associated with cancer-based clinical tests.
The cell-based sensing technology will aid in compound screening for preventive medicines or personalized chemotherapy for anti-cancer, anti-aging, anti-Alzheimer’s, fat burning, diabetes and hair restoration. The result of the study will be presented by the researchers at Bio Japan 2011 on 7 October 2011.
The in vivo anti cancer compound response of patients must generally be related to the in vitro chemosensitivity test. These techniques, however, involve prolonged experimental processes and painstaking laboratory conditions. Additionally, labeling compounds can lead to interference with the anti-cancer compounds resulting in the degradation of efficacy prediction. Although by using Omics, researchers have been able to determine markers that can predict chemosensitivity, the unpredictable nature of the interactive blending of compounds demanded a non invasive, label-free, in vitro cell-based assay for predicting the efficacy of anti-cancer compounds.
Professor Toshihiro Ona stated that by designing a highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor (SPR) the researchers were able to determine the process for monitoring the mitochondrial membrane potential in a non-label manner achieved through cellular reaction. The High Precision SPR enables screening of high performance compounds with minimal risk.
Source: http://www.kyushu-u.ac.jp/english/index.php