Vibrational spectroscopy imaging to identify biomarkers of cell and tissue response to radiation therapy

癌症是加拿大的主要死因。大约一半的癌症患者将接受放射治疗，其目标是使用电离辐射最大限度地杀死癌细胞，同时最大限度地减少对健康细胞和组织的损害。尽管最近取得了进展，但放射治疗的主要挑战是导致癌症复发的放射抗性。 人们对导致癌细胞对电离辐射产生抵抗力的机制基本上缺乏了解。造成这种情况的一个主要原因是缺乏以高空间分辨率探测辐射引起的细胞和组织生化变化的现有技术。我们的目标是这个联盟国际催化剂项目是开发新的光学成像技术的基础上振动光谱用于在亚细胞分辨率的放射生物学反应的理解。振动光谱学包括一套互补技术，例如拉曼显微光谱学（µRS）、受激拉曼光谱学（SRS）和红外吸收显微光谱学（IRMS）。利用激光激发细胞或组织特有的分子键振动，这些成像方法是非破坏性和非侵入性的，并且也不需要任何外部造影剂。我们将合作开发实验设计，光学成像参数和数据分析程序。我们将生成在以下三个实验室独立验证的信息：卡尔顿大学的SRS成像;都柏林理工大学的IRMS成像;以及兰斯大学香槟-阿登分校的µRS和增强SRS成像。研究人员将受益于丰富的国际培训环境，这些培训环境由研究团队成员的辅助设备、技能和专业知识提供，此外还可以获得大量的辐照细胞和组织样本。从长远来看，未来的实验将详细了解RT的生物反应机制，从而使个性化RT的发展成为可能。

Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada. About half of all cancer patients will receive radiation therapy where the goal is to maximize cancer cell death using ionizing radiation while minimizing damage to healthy cells and tissue. Despite recent advances, a major challenge for radiation therapy is that of radiation resistance resulting in cancer recurrence. There is a fundamental lack of knowledge of the mechanisms causing cancer cells to become resistant to ionizing radiation. A major cause for this is the lack of existing techniques to detect radiation-induced biochemical changes in cells and tissue with high-spatial resolution. Our goal for this Alliance International Catalyst project is to develop novel optical imaging techniques based on vibrational spectroscopy for use in the understanding of the radiobiological response with sub-cellular resolution. Vibrational spectroscopy comprises a suite of complementary techniques such as Raman micro-spectroscopy (µRS), stimulated Raman spectroscopy (SRS) and Infrared absorption micro-spectroscopy (IRMS)) . Utilizing laser light to excite vibrations of molecular bonds specific to cells or tissue, these imaging methods are non-destructive and non-invasive, and also do not require any external contrast agents. We will collaborate to develop experiment design, optical imaging parameters and procedures for data analysis. We will generate information that is validated independently across three laboratories as follows: SRS imaging at Carleton University; IRMS imaging at Technological University of Dublin; and µRS and enhanced SRS imaging at University de Reims Champagne-Ardenne. Research trainees will benefit from the rich international training environments offered by virtue of the complementary equipment, skills and expertise of the research team members, in addition to having access to a large pool of irradiated cell and tissue samples.In the long-term, future experiments will provide detailed understanding of the mechanisms of biological response to RT, thus enabling the development of personalized RT.