Abstract :
What are the effects of chemotherapy at the cell level, notably when weak doses are administered ?
An answer to this question would lead to the optimization of treatment on an individual basis, as the dose could be adapted to each patient in order to reduce side-effects.
Results obtained by Professors Sockalingum and Sule-Suso, in collaboration with Dr. Dumas and Dr. Sandt on the SMIS beamline, have just been published on this subject.
The study was on lung tumor cells, treated with increasing, but non-cytotoxic, doses of an anti-cancerous agent (acting by inhibiting DNA synthesis). The analysis was carried out by IR spectroscopy, either on cell populations (using a bench-top instrument) or on single cells (with the SMIS beamline). Spectral changes were recorded over time after treatment and in relation to the dose of anti-cancer drug administered.
It was shown that spectral modifications, relative to both “time” and “dose”, observable even with the smallest quantities of anti-cancer drug, were found in both cell populations and single cells.
These very encouraging results suggest that this type of approach could be used to construct “made to measure” chemotherapies for each patient.
References :
Draux, F., Jeannesson, P., Gobinet, C., Sule-Suso, J., Pijanka, J., Sandt, C., Dumas, P., Manfait, M., & Sockalingum, G. D. "IR spectroscopy reveals effect of non-cytotoxic doses of anti-tumour drug on cancer cells". Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 395(7): 2293-2301.(2009).
