By placing DNA in a liquid solution and gold nanoparticles, scientists can identify whether cells are cancerous. This test would detect 90 out of 100 cancers.
Just 10 minutes to find out if you have cancer: it seems surreal and yet Australian researchers have developed a blood test capable of giving such results. It detects the presence of cancer DNA in the patient’s blood. The results of this research from the University of Queensland in Australia, have been published in the journal NatureCommunications.
Differentiate cancer cells from healthy cells
“Cancer is an extremely complicated and variable disease, it was difficult to find a signature common to all cancers, distinct from healthy cells”, confides Abu Sina, researcher at the University of Queensland. Research teams have focused on methyl groups, which are DNA markers. They found that these behave differently depending on whether they are attached to cancerous cells or to healthy cells. This particularity of cancer cells has been observed in different types of cancer: lymphoma, breast, colorectal or prostate cancer.
A color-based test
The scientists tested these different properties of the DNA of cancer cells in a particular situation: they confronted the two types of DNA with metallic structures. The two types of cells behave differently. In water with gold nanoparticles, the DNA of cancer cells will stick to the gold and the mixture retains its original color, pink. On the other hand, if DNA from healthy cells is added, it binds differently to the gold nanoparticles and the water is blue. In just ten minutes, researchers get a result.
90% of cancers detected
The test does not make it possible to determine what type of cancer is detected, but its effectiveness is important. According to the various tests carried out, it is capable of identifying 90 cases of cancer out of 100. This could allow, in people at risk, to avoid the multitude of examinations whose protocols are very cumbersome, such as biopsies, MRI and other scanners.
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