The new method can detect cancer cells in 10 minutes

recently, Australian researchers proposed a cancer cell test that could be completed in 10 minutes. This test allows for rapid initial diagnosis by identifying DNA differences between cancer cells and healthy cells.
process of attaching methyl groups to DNA, known as methylation, is genetically manipulated. In all "mature" human cells, DNA carries these modifications. There are significant differences in genomic information between cancer cells and healthy cells, resulting in differences in methylation levels and patterns for most types of cancer cells.
Att Trau of the University of Queensland and colleagues found that different methylation conditions in cancer cells affect the physical and chemical properties of DNA. Among these properties, the researchers found that DNA is particularly closely linked to gold nanoparticles, and used this property to develop a cancer detection method. With minimal purified genomic DNA from the patient, the test can be completed in less than 10 minutes, and the results can be discerned by the naked eye alone.
to confirm the effectiveness, the researchers tested the method in more than 100 human samples representing different cancer types, genomic DNA from 72 cancer patients and 31 healthy individuals. The paper was recently published in Nature - Newsletter.
, but at this stage, the method can only detect the presence of cancer cells and cannot identify their type or disease progression, the researchers said. More samples should be tested in the future and, where possible, more detailed analytical studies should be carried out. (Source: Tang Erdu, China Science Daily)