Emerging applications of fluorescent nanocrystals quantum dots for micrometastases detection.
The occurrence of metastases is one of the main causes of death in many cancers and the main cause of death for breast cancer patients. Micrometastases of disseminated tumour cells and circulating tumour cells are present in more than 30% of breast cancer patients without any clinical or even histopathological signs of metastasis. Low abundance of these cell types in clinical diagnostic material dictates the necessity of their enrichment prior to reliable detection. Current micrometastases detection techniques are based on immunocytochemical and molecular methods suffering from low efficiency of tumour cells enrichment and observer-dependent interpretation. The use of highly fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals, also known as "quantum dots" and nanocrystal-encoded microbeads tagged with a wide panel of antibodies against specific tumour markers offers unique possibilities for ultra-sensitive micrometastases detection in patients' serum and tissues. The nanoparticle-based diagnostics provides an opportunity for highly sensitive parallel quantification of specific proteins in a rapid and low-cost method, thereby providing a link between the primary tumour and the micrometastases for early diagnosis.
Mahmoud
Wael
W
EA no 3798 Détection et Approches Thérapeutiques Nanotechnologiques dans Mécanismes Biologiques de Défense, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France.
Sukhanova
Alyona
A
Oleinikov
Vladimir
V
Rakovich
Yury P
YP
Donegan
John F
JF
Pluot
Michel
M
Cohen
Jacques H M
JH
Volkov
Yuri
Y
Nabiev
Igor
I
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D008863:Microspheres; D053758:Nanoparticles; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods*; D045663:Quantum Dots
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes