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Microscopy Technique May Detect Cancer Cells
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Researchers from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute have uncovered a technique that utilizes flow cytometry to detect the “subcellular location of a protein.” This technique could make it easier for medical professionals to detect and employ new therapies for cancer detection and treatment.
The way the technique works is that it uses “simple and accessible detection methods to quickly screen large cell populations, but with a resolution of a single cell.” Researchers were quoted as saying, “If a protein is not located in the right subcellular compartment of a cell the result can be diseases ranging from metabolic disorders to cancers. It is the modulation of a protein transport inside a cell that can lead to an effective treatment for cancer.” Additionally, because the researchers were able to isolate the subcellular location of the target protein, they were able to formulate higher content screening of the cells and the proteins.
Proteins in the human body move within specific “compartments” inside cells including: the plasma membrane, the nucleus, and other membrane-enclosed areas. The cellular movement is required for the proteins to perform their unique functions which may include gene transcription or molecular regulations within the body.
Fluorescence microscopy is the methods currently used to evaluate the movement of proteins but it is limited by its ability to analyze a specific number of cells and the data transmitted will only reflect an average of the properties within those cells. The researchers noted this method, because of its limitations does not “reveal the heterogeneity that is often present among seemingly identical cells,” The new technique sheds light on the differences of these cells.
Screening of cell populations has been performed in the past through an electroporation technique but this also was limited by the fact that it didn’t allow for the examination of “native proteins and primary cells.” The new technology allows for fluorescent labeling of the protein as a way to isolate its subcellular native protein.
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