Abstract
Simple SummaryGliomas comprise around 30% of human brain tumors, while invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) comprises around 80% of human breast cancers. The aim of our study was to show that cancerogenesis affects the redox status of mitochondrial cytochromes, which can be tracked by using Raman spectroscopy and imaging. Our results confirmed that human breast cancer and brain tumor demonstrate a redox imbalance compared to normal tissues. We have shown the correlation between the intensity of cytochromes Raman bands at 750, 1126, 1337 and 1584 cm−1 and malignancy grade for brain and breast cancers.To monitor redox state changes and biological mechanisms occurring in mitochondrial cytochromes in cancers improving methods are required. We used Raman spectroscopy and Raman imaging to monitor changes in the redox state of the mitochondrial cytochromes in ex vivo human brain and breast tissues at 532 nm, 633 nm, 785 nm. We identified the oncogenic processes that characterize human infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) and human brain tumors: gliomas; astrocytoma and medulloblastoma based on the quantification of cytochrome redox status by exploiting the resonance-enhancement effect of Raman scattering. We visualized localization of cytochromes by Raman imaging in the breast and brain tissues and analyzed cytochrome c vibrations at 750, 1126, 1337 and 1584 cm−1 as a function of malignancy grade. We found that the concentration of reduced cytochrome c becomes abnormally high in human brain tumors and breast cancers and correlates with the grade of cancer. We showed that Raman imaging provides additional insight into the biology of astrocytomas and breast ductal invasive cancer, which can be used for noninvasive grading, differential diagnosis.
Highlights
To properly address redox state changes of mitochondrial cytochromes in brain and breast cancers by Raman spectroscopy and imaging, we systematically investigated how the Raman method responds to redox upregulations in cancers
We compared the Raman spectra of the human brain and breast cancer tissues using different laser excitation wavelengths
In the view of the results presented so far we can state that Raman spectroscopy can be used in probing biochemical changes in normal and cancer cells, and the role of cytochromes in these specific cancers, which is not previously reported
Summary
Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), known as infiltrating ductal carcinoma, and gliomas are the most common types of breast cancer and brain tumors. IDCs comprises about 80 percent of all breast cancer diagnoses, gliomas comprise about 30 percent of all brain tumors and central nervous system, astrocytomas are the most common gliomas [1,2,3]. It was discovered that in MCF-7 breast cancer cells that total ATP turnover was 80% oxidative and 20% glycolytic [5]. This hypothesis was tested in primary-cultured human glioblastoma cells and it was found that cells were highly oxidative and largely unaffected by treatment with glucose or inhibitors of glycolysis [6]
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