Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Prostate-specific antigen PSA biomarker assays are the current clinical method for mass screening of prostate cancer. In our previous research, we demonstrated the feasibility of using cellular refractive indices RI as a unique contrast parameter to accomplish label-free detection of prostate cancer cells via variance testing, but were unable to determine if a specific cell was cancerous or noncancerous.
In this paper, we report the use of our Photonic-Crystal biosensor in a Total-Internal-Reflection PC-TIR configuration to construct a label-free imaging system, which allows for the detection of individual prostate cancer cells utilizing cellular RI as the only contrast parameter.
Noncancerous prostate BPH-1 cells and prostate cancer PC-3 cells were mixed at varied ratios and measured concurrently. Additionally, we isolated and induced PC-3 cells to undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition EMT by exposing these cells to soluble factors such as TGF The biophysical characteristics of the cellular RI were quantified extensively in comparison to non-induced PC-3 cells as well as BPH-1 cells. EMT is a crucial mechanism for the invasion and metastasis of epithelial tumors characterized by the loss of cell-cell adhesion and increased cell mobility.
Our study shows promising clinical potential in utilizing the PC-TIR biosensor imaging system to not only detect prostate cancer cells, but also evaluate prostate cancer progression. The prostate-specific antigen PSA has been widely used as a biomarker to screen men for prostate cancer, although there are many issues associated with this method including a high false-positive rate.
This is because in addition to prostate cancer, infection and chronic inflammation or benign prostatic hyperplasia BPH may also cause elevations in PSA levels.
