Ovarian cancer[/caption]Editor----According to a paper published in Chem Comm, a new chemical discovery allows for better monitoring and treatment for cancers and degenerative diseases.
Researcher from the Universities of Birmingham, Bath and the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai have put together a new method to detect ‘reactive oxygen’ using fluorescence.
Reactive oxygen, which includes peroxides or oxygen ions, can cause cell damage and degeneration in the body. In high doses it can be a sign of cancer of Alzheimer’s. The value of reactive oxygen has led researchers to find new ways to detect it.
This latest research opens the door to new possibilities for detecting changes in reactive oxygen levels to help to intervene early on during the stages of some of the conditions like cancer and Alzheimer’s. These sequences can be mapped, using fluorescent imaging. The concentration of reactive oxygen in tissue and in cells would light up as a condition of having the fluorescence. This could allow for the monitoring of disease and to assist with the intervention strategies.
Dr John Fossey from the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham remarks about this development: “This most recent project has taken the international CASE consortium in a different and exciting direction. Developing a new sensing model based on reactive oxygen has many useful applications in diagnosing and detecting disease.”
Professor Tony James from the University of Bath, commented: "I am very excited by these new results which have pointed our research in an unexpected yet truly rewarding direction. This work uses ‘simple’ molecules which are capable of helping doctors understand and diagnose ‘difficult’diseases."
