六分之一的男性在他的一生會被診斷患有前列腺癌，前列腺癌是美國男性的第二大死因,。
這是一個嚴(yán)重的問題,，當(dāng)前的診斷測試不盡如人意。近日,，中央佛羅里達(dá)大學(xué)納米科學(xué)技術(shù)中心的研究小組已經(jīng)開發(fā)出一中更準(zhǔn)確的測試技術(shù),，不僅能確定病人是否有前列腺癌，而且能測得所患前列癌的惡性程度如何,。
該項目的首席研究員說副教授Qun Treen：我們的納米粒子不僅能發(fā)現(xiàn)一個前列腺癌特異性的化學(xué)反應(yīng),，他們也可以告訴我們癌細(xì)胞的惡性程度如何，它可以給醫(yī)生提供更詳細(xì)的信息來更好地治療病人,。當(dāng)前的測試技術(shù)不能告訴我們癌癥的惡性程度如何,，這往往導(dǎo)致臨床醫(yī)生直接進(jìn)行腺體切除手術(shù)，而不考慮其他治療手段,。
相關(guān)研究論文發(fā)表在Journal of Translational Medicine雜志上,。研究人員表示該技術(shù)方法相當(dāng)簡單。
研究人員用黃金納米粒子檢測前列腺腫瘤和人類免疫球蛋白（IgG）之間的特定的化學(xué)反應(yīng),。 IgG是血液中循環(huán)一個豐富的蛋白質(zhì),。研究表明，IgG會與黃金納米粒子的表面形成蛋白電暈,。這一電暈可以被稱為動態(tài)光散射技術(shù)檢測,。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)當(dāng)癌細(xì)胞存在時，他們可以“消滅”血液中的IgG,，這個特定的交互反應(yīng)會被黃金納米粒子檢測到,。
早前我們已經(jīng)用動物和人的血液樣本進(jìn)行了我們的研究，現(xiàn)在這項研究用動物模型和人體組織樣本證實了我們的成果,。如果一切順利的話,，在兩到三年內(nèi)就可以開始臨床試驗。研究人員希望在五年內(nèi)該技術(shù)就可以被醫(yī)師用于診斷,。
四年前,，檢測反應(yīng)的系統(tǒng)就已被發(fā)現(xiàn)。它被稱為納米功能動態(tài)光散射法（NanoDLSay）,，它被世界各地的許多研究人員用于從血液中檢測癌細(xì)胞,，從水中檢測鉛等,。
研究者正在尋找資金資助下一步研究，國家科學(xué)基金會和佛羅里達(dá)州衛(wèi)生班克黑德科萊基金會資助了大量的基礎(chǔ)研究去開發(fā)新的技術(shù),。(生物谷：Bioon.com）
doi:10.1186/1479-5876-10-44
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PMID:
Developing a nanoparticle test for prostate cancer scoring
Qun Huo1*, Sally A Litherland2, Shannon Sullivan1, Hillari Hallquist1, David A Decker2 and Inoel Rivera-Ramirez2
Background
Over-diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer has been a major problem in prostate cancer care and management. Currently the most relevant prognostic factor to predict a patient's risk of death due to prostate cancer is the Gleason score of the biopsied tissue samples. However, pathological analysis is subjective, and the Gleason score is only a qualitative estimate of the cancer malignancy. Molecular biomarkers and diagnostic tests that can accurately predict prostate tumor aggressiveness are rather limited.
Method
We report here for the first time the development of a nanoparticle test that not only can distinguish prostate cancer from normal and benign conditions, but also has the potential to predict the aggressiveness of prostate cancer quantitatively. To conduct the test, a prostate tissue lysate sample is spiked into a blood serum or human IgG solution and the spiked sample is incubated with a citrate-protected gold nanoparticle solution. IgG is known to adsorb to citrate-protected gold nanoparticles to form a "protein corona" on the nanoparticle surface. From this study, we discovered that certain tumor-specific molecules can interact with IgG and change the adsorption behavior of IgG to the gold nanoparticles. This change is reflected in the nanoparticle size of the assay solution and detected by a dynamic light scattering technique. Assay data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA for multiple variant analysis, and using the Student t-test or nonparametric Mann-Whitney U-tests for pairwise analyses.
Results
An inverse, quantitative correlation of the average nanoparticle size of the assay solution with tumor status and histological diagnostic grading was observed from the nanoparticle test. IgG solutions spiked with prostate tumor tissue exhibit significantly smaller nanoparticle size than the solutions spiked with normal and benign tissues. The higher grade the tumor is, the smaller the nanoparticle size is. The test particularly revealed large differences among the intermediate Grade 2 tumors, and suggested the need to treat them differently.
Conclusion
Development of a new nanoparticle test may provide a quantitative measure of the prostate cancer aggressiveness. If validated in a larger study of patients with prostate cancer, this test could become a new diagnostic tool in conjunction with Gleason Score pathology diagnostics to better distinguish aggressive cancer from indolent tumor.
