In research that could one day have the ability to diagnose cancer without resorting to a biopsy, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Med school have developed an MRI manner in which can detect a particular kind of sugar molecule associated with cancerous cells.
While other imaging tests, including CT scans and mammograms, can be used to detect tumors, the Johns Hopkins researchers point out that the biopsy is usually required to directly study cells and determine whether a growth is malignant or benign. However, their new MRI technique may make those biopsies more efficient, or perhaps replace them completely.
The method, that is described inside a paper now available online Friday in the journal Nature Communications, noninvasively detects sugar molecules which are shed by the outer membranes of cancerous cells. Thus far, the technique only has been tested in mice and in cells grown inside a test tube, however the authors think that it shows promise like a non-invasive diagnostic tool.
“We think this is actually the first time scientists have discovered a use within imaging cellular slime,” explained Dr. Jeff Bulte, a radiology and radiological science professor at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering. “As cells become cancerous, some proteins on their own outer membranes shed sugar molecules and be less slimy, perhaps because they’re crowded closer together.”
He added that if he and his colleagues can program the MRI to detect sugars mounted on a particular protein, they might be able to tell the difference between regular cells and cancerous ones. The work they do builds on recent research indicating that fine-tuned imaging techniques are able to detect glucose without using dyes based on how it interacts with surrounding water molecules.
Other scientists have used MRI to image proteins on the outside of cells which had lost their sugar, but those techniques require injectable dyes. Dr. Bulte’s team, however, compared MRI readings from a kind of protein referred to as mucins both with and without sugars attached to discover what changes happened to the signal.
They then sought out that altered signal in four kinds of lab-grown cancer, and found drastically reduced levels of mucin-attached sugars when compared to normal cells. Lead author Dr. Xiaolei Song said that it was the first time that a property integral to cancer cells was used instead of an injected dye to detect cancer cells.
“The advantage of detecting a molecule already within the is that people could possibly image the whole tumor,” she explained inside a statement. “This often isn’t possible with injected dyes simply because they only reach area of the tumor. Plus, the dyes are costly.”
While Bulte cautions that more tests are required to prove that the technique could be accustomed to help diagnose cancer in humans, it does show promise. He and the colleagues now plan to see if they can distinguish more kinds of cancerous tumors from benign masses in live mice while using MRI technique.
Provided additional tests are successful, Bulte and Song believe that the method might be used to detect cancer at an early stage, as well as to monitor reaction to chemotherapy and also to guide biopsies to ensure sampling of the most malignant part of a tumor. Eventually, they hope that the MRI technique might make a minimum of some biopsies unnecessary.
