University of Nottingham researchers have developed the first endoscopic device that can be used to generate 3D images of the stiffness of individual cells or organisms. The device will allow medical professionals to perform histology at the single-cell level within the human body.
Cancer cells are commonly much softer than normal cells in their early stages to allow them to spread throughout the body, a process known as metastasis. During metastasis, collections of cells can modify their environment to create a stiff tumor to protect them. The technology developed by the Nottingham researchers, published in Nature Communications Biology, will allow doctors to measure the stiffness of these individual cells and perform histology within the human body.
“We aim to develop new endoscopic technologies that make diagnostics faster, safer, and clearer for both patients and clinicians.” said Dr Salvatore La Cavera III, Nottingham Research Fellow in the Optics and Photonics Group at the University of Nottingham. “Typically, histopathology requires destructive, invasive biopsies that are not only uncomfortable and potentially damaging for the patient, but require significant logistics such as chemical processing, transportation, and analysis.”
“Our device makes it possible to ‘feel for a stiff lump,’ but on a single cellular scale, meaning we could catch cancer early at microscopic cell scales rather than large malignant tumour scale. It is non-invasive, non-toxic, and very promisingly, is related to technology that can quantitively determine the presence of cancer cells using artificial intelligence – providing a chronically understaffed area with a much-needed solution to a real-world problem that the industry has faced for decades.”
The device can detect an object's stiffness down to the nanometer scale through Brillouin scattering, providing it with incredible imaging resolution. During the development of the tool, the team tested it by visualizing and gathering material characteristics of the cuticle of a living nematode. Previously, this cuticle has only ever been visualized by employing electron microscopy in non-living conditions.
“Until now, these microscopic observations have not been possible in living systems in their natural state with traditional technologies, which typically require animals to be sacrificed.” said Dr Veeren Chauhan, Assistant Professor in Whole Organism Analytics at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham. “This new probe is significant because it has the potential to allow researchers like us to follow the development of an individual nematodes physical surface properties throughout its entire life cycle, from egg to adult, in approximately three days, which would take upwards of 18 years when considering human development.
“Therefore, this capability will not only enhance our understanding of nematode biology, but also builds a foundational model for translating these findings to complex biological systems, including human physiology, paving the way for advancements in both basic biological research and clinical diagnostics.”