Cell Vibrational Profiling (CVP) Using Optical Tweezers to Improve Tumour Diagnosis: A Novel Methodological Approach
Date
2021-06-29
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Abstract
Cellular oscillations have long been recognized and previously suggested as a powerful real-time diagnostics tool for identifying and differentiating biological specimens. The oscillatory signals emitted by various biological samples are thought to be due to metabolic processes inherent to the measured sample. Various methods to measure oscillatory signals have used atomic force and dark-field microscopy accompanied by traditional interpretative methods such as Root Mean Square, Fast Fourier transform, time-domain analysis, and power spectral density. While these approaches were fundamental to the recognition of the field of cellular oscillations, the instrumentation lacked sensitivity and resolution, leading to difficulties in (1) analyzing complete frequency spectra of more than a few Hz, (2) providing empirically tested methodological approaches, and (3) statistically differentiating and/or determining distinct frequency regions for a cell-type of interest. This thesis sought to build and test a novel methodological approach to measuring and determining cellular vibrational frequency profiles. We hypothesized, each cell line (NMSCs, HEKa, and A549) exhibited unique and measurable vibrational frequency profiles reflective of their intrinsic cellular processes, measured via optical tweezers. We disclosed our efforts to improve the methodology by (1) optimizing experimental set-ups, looking specifically at sample preparation (implementation of microfluidic chambers, synchronization of cell cycles, and changes to media viscosity), and (2) analyzing data through the implementation of multivariate statistical analysis achieved through our newly developed software: VibrationScanner. Our results capitalized on our discoveries to establish a new method, cell vibrational profiling, in hopes that it may become a high-throughput, cost-effective, and sensitive technique to reliably identify biological functions and frequency components of cells.
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Optical Tweezers, Cancer Biology, Multivariate Statistical Analysis, Principal Component Analysis, Orthogonal Partial Least Squares - Discriminate Analysis, Cellular Vibrational Profiling, Frequency, Oscillations, Non-Melanoma Skin Cancers, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Citation
Topham, J. J. (2021). Cell Vibrational Profiling (CVP) Using Optical Tweezers to Improve Tumour Diagnosis: A Novel Methodological Approach (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.