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Naturally Fluorescent Molecule May Act as Cancer Indicator
Ahmed Heikal, associate professor of bioengineering, points out that nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) fuels a series of biochemical reactions that involve various enzymes to produce ATP, the major energy source in cells.
In the event of disease or a metabolic disorder, he adds, these enzymes and their related reactions can become disabled, causing a build-up of unused NADH.
Heikal says that one of the main challenges in cancer diagnosis is the ability to differentiate cancer cells from normal ones at the early stages of tumour progression.
His team teased apart the critical difference between normal and cancerous cells by using the fluorescence of natural NADH.
Combining the state-of-the-art spectroscopy and microscopy techniques, he and his colleagues were able to convert such fluorescence into an accurate measure of NADH concentration in live cells.
Heikal and graduate student Yu have found that the average concentration of NADH in breast cancer cells is about twice that in normal breast cells.
"If we are given two live cells, one normal and the other cancerous, we could differentiate between the two with confidence," said Heikal.
"For the first time, we have been able to quantify the concentration of NADH in both live breast cells and breast cancer cells," he added.
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