A DIT team is developing a novel approach to the diagnosis of disease, using old equipment in an entirely new way, writes Dick Ahlstrom
Researchers at the Dublin Institute of Technology's Focus Institute are finding a novel new use for that mainstay of astronomy spectroscopy - in the diagnosis of disease. This is just one of the research projects being pursued in the institute's Radiation and Environmental Science Centre.
"We do research in different areas, radiation biology, environmental toxicology and biospectroscopy, using spectroscopy to look at cells and try to diagnose disease," explains the centre's manager, Dr Fiona Lyng.
The Centre was established back in 1995 to study genomic instability caused by radiation exposures. By 2000, environment was added to its title, given an increasing amount of research in this area, she says. It currently has 12 postgraduate researchers, three post-docs and a lab manager, and is increasingly involved in collaborations, says Lyng. These include joint research with various DIT faculties and also with other universities and hospitals.
The biospectroscopy work focuses on two forms of cancer, cervical and prostate, Lyng says. "We are looking at cervical cancer samples from the National Maternity Hospital. It is a totally new way to diagnose disease."
It is conventional spectroscopy used in an unconventional way. The team searches for distinctive patterns of spectroscopic bands that indicate changes in cell biology associated with cancer.
Preliminary results suggest the technique holds promise. "It is working really well," says Dr Lyng. "The normal cells have particular patterns of spectroscopic bands related to glycogen in the cells. The tumour cells have less glycogen and more nucleic acid."
Glycogen is a form of glucose that stored in the muscles to provide the energy needed for locomotion. "The normal cells build up glycogen over time but tumour cells don't have time to build up glycogen," Dr Lyng explains. Cancer cells divide more quickly and so produce a weaker glycogen signal but a strong and distinctive nucleic acid signal.
"It is a very strong marker," she adds. "You can almost see it by eye. There are a lot of other changes that allow us to pick out other spectroscopic bands."
Postdoc researcher Orla Howe leads the prostate cancer study, which attempts to offer a useful new diagnostic tool that can provide an early warning for susceptible individuals.
The work is based on "radio sensitivity", how prone a person's DNA is to damage caused by low-level radiation exposure. There can be huge variation in radio sensitivity from one person to the next, but the researchers have linked higher sensitivity to higher risk of prostate cancer after analysis of tissue samples provided by St Luke's. "Prostate patients have higher radio sensitivity than normal patients," says Dr Lyng.
Their approach involves taking a blood sample to recover a form of white blood cells, the lymphocytes. These are removed and irradiated. The researchers then assess changes in the chromosomes, with large numbers of chromosome breaks indicating a higher radio sensitivity. If their research results are correct these same individuals may be more susceptible to prostate problems, but doctors may also have a way to identify those at risk before the onset of disease.
The centre has also teamed up with the Conway Institute at University College Dublin to carry out gene expression analysis of the tissue samples using DNA microarrays. These can detect the thousands of proteins produced by the genes, measuring which are up regulated or down regulated in prostate cancer.
A lot of the centre's environmental work involves toxin analysis, but this also strays into toxin studies arising from biomedical implants. One project involves a study of titanium waste produced by replacement joint implants.