Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Quantitative Raman Analysis Of Human Blood Serum Of Glaucoma Patients Supplemented With Macular Pigment Carotenoids., Joy Udensi, Ekaterina Loskutova, James Loughman, Hugh J. Byrne

Datasets

Carotenoids have been widely studied for their high dietary, antioxidant, and vision protection roles in the human body. Blood contains all major dietary carotenoids and hence presents as a suitable and efficient substrate for the estimation of dietary carotenoids in vivo. Following the 18-month supplementation of open angle glaucoma patients with macula pigment carotenoids (Lutein, Zeaxanthin and Meso-Zeaxanthin) in the European Nutrition in Glaucoma Management (ENIGMA) trial, Raman spectroscopic analysis of the pre-supplementation baseline and 18-month supplemented blood serum carotenoids from participants was carried out, to investigate the systemic impact of supplementation in the blood and explore a more direct …

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis Of Human Serum Samples Of Convalescing Covid-19 Positive Patients, Hugh Byrne, Naomi Jackson, Jaythoon Hassan

Articles

Rapid screening, detection and monitoring of viral infection is of critical importance, as exemplified by the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2, leading to the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19. This is equally the case for the stages of patient convalescence as for the initial stages of infection, to understand the medium and long terms effects, as well as the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. Optical spectroscopic techniques potentially offer an alternative to currently employed techniques of screening for the presence, or the response to infection. In this study, the ability of Raman spectroscopy to distinguish between samples of the serum of convalescent COVID-19 …

Optimisation Of Raman Spectral Processing For Classification Of Radiotherapeutic Toxicity, Isha Behl, Dinesh Medipally, Chris Talbot, Aidan Meade, Fiona Lyng

Conference papers

Severe radiation toxicity can continue years after the completion of radiotherapy for prostate cancer patients. Currently, it is impossible to predict before treatment which patients will experience these long-term side effects. New approaches based on vibrational spectroscopy have advantages over lymphocyte and genomic assays in terms of minimal sample preparation, speed and cost. A high throughput method has been developed to measure Raman spectra from liquid plasma in a cover glass bottomed 96 well plate. However, the Raman spectra can show contributions from glass and water. The current study aims to optimise pre-processing steps to improve classification performance.

Raman Spectroscopy For Early Detection Of Cervical Cancer, A Global Women’S Health Issue—A Review, Rubina Shaikh, Amuthachelvie Daniel, Fiona Lyng

Articles

This review focuses on recent advances and future perspectives in the use of Raman spectroscopy for cervical cancer, a global women’s health issue. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common women’s cancer in the world, and unfortunately mainly affects younger women. However, when detected at the early precancer stage, it is highly treatable. High-quality cervical screening programmes and the introduction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine are reducing the incidence of cervical cancer in many countries, but screening is still essential for all women. Current gold standard methods include HPV testing and cytology for screening, followed by colposcopy and histopathology …

Identification Of Precancerous Oral Lesions Using Minimally Invasive Sampling Techniques And Raman Microspectroscopy, Isha Behl

Conference papers

The gold standard diagnosis of oral pre-cancer/cancer is an invasive biopsy followed by a histological examination, which may present psychological trauma and risk of infection to patients. Moreover, multiple biopsies are often required to monitor precancer lesions' progression. With the aim of reducing the need for multiple biopsies, this study was undertaken to identify pre-cancerous lesions using minimally invasive brush biopsy and saliva samples, analysed by Raman spectroscopy.

Development And Validation Of A Raman Spectroscopic Classification Model For Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (Cin), Damien Traynor, Shiyamala Duraipandian, Ramya Bhatia, Kate Cuschieri, Prerna Tewari, Padraig Kearney, Tom D'Arcy, John J. O'Leary, Cara M. Martin, Fiona Lyng

Articles

The mortality associated with cervical cancer can be reduced if detected at the precancer stage, but current methods are limited in terms of subjectivity, cost and time. Optical spectroscopic methods such as Raman spectroscopy can provide a rapid, label-free and nondestructive measurement of the biochemical fingerprint of a cell, tissue or biofluid. Previous studies have shown the potential of Raman spectroscopy for cervical cancer diagnosis, but most were pilot studies with small sample sizes. The aim of this study is to show the clinical utility of Raman spectroscopy for identifying cervical precancer in a large sample set with validation in …

Mirna-Mediated Fibrosis In The Out-Of-Target Heart Following Partial-Body Irradiation, Barbara Tanno, Flavia Novelli Flavia Novelli, Simona Leonardi, Caterina Merla, Gabriele Babini, Paola Giardullo, Munira Kadhim, Damian Traynor, Dinesh Medipally, Aidan Meade, Fiona Lyng, Soile Tapio, Luca Marcetti, Anna Saran, Simonetta Pazzaglia, Mariateresa Mancuso

Articles

A causal association between radiation exposure and various types of non-malignant diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases, has been extensively reported [1,2]. The risks of radiation-induced heart disease (RIHD) were described in therapeutically exposed cohorts of patients with thoracic tumors in which a high incidence of long-term complications (i.e., pericarditis, cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, conduction abnormalities and myocardial fibrosis) increased the risk of heart-disease-related mortality [3]. Patients who received post-mastectomy radiotherapy for left-sided breast cancer were at a 2–3-time higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, due to the apex and anterior wall of the heart being exposed to doses …

Raman Spectroscopy Of Carotenoid Compounds For Clinical Applications—A Review, Joy Udensi, James Loughman, Ekaterina Loskutova, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Carotenoid compounds are ubiquitous in nature, providing the characteristic colouring of many algae, bacteria, fruits and vegetables. They are a critical component of the human diet and play a key role in human nutrition, health and disease. Therefore, the clinical importance of qualitative and quantitative carotene content analysis is increasingly recognised. In this review, the structural and optical properties of carotenoid compounds are reviewed, differentiating between those of carotenes and xanthophylls. The strong non-resonant and resonant Raman spectroscopic signatures of carotenoids are described, and advances in the use of Raman spectroscopy to identify carotenoids in biological environments are reviewed. Focus …

Identification Of Biomarkers For The Prediction Of Radiation Toxicity In Prostate Cancer Patients, Daniel Cullen

Doctoral

The success of radiotherapy in tumour control depends on the total dose given. However, the tolerance of the normal tissues surrounding the tumour limits this dose. It is not known why some patients develop radiation toxicity and, currently, it is not possible to predict before treatment which patients will experience adverse effects. Thus, there is an unmet clinical need for a new test to identify patients at risk of radiation toxicity. The aim of this study was to determine if spectral variations in blood lymphocytes from PCa patients may suggest Raman spectral bands that could be used in future research …

Raman Spectroscopic Characterisation Of Non Stimulated And Stimulated Human Whole Saliva, Genecy Calado, Isha Behl, Hugh Byrne, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Human saliva is a unique biofluid which can reflect the physiopathological state of an individual. The wide spectrum of molecules present in saliva, compounded by the close association of salivary composition to serum metabolites, can provide valuable information for clinical diagnostic applications through highly sensitive vibrational spectroscopic techniques such as Raman spectroscopy. However, the nature of saliva, in terms of collection and patient-related characteristics, can be considered factors which may strongly affect the Raman spectral profile of salivary samples and disrupt the search for specific salivary biomarkers in the detection of diseases. The main objective of this study was to …

Development Of 3d In Vitro Tissue Models For The Analysis Of Solar Radiation Damage Of Skin, Ulises Lopez Gonzalez

Doctoral

The aim of this work was to investigate changes to the molecular composition and conformation of HaCaT cells as a result of simulated solar radiation in a 3D in vitro skin model by Raman spectroscopy. The process to achieve this goal was performed in three main stages: (1) optimisation of the working concentration and volume of two 3D membranes, used as a structural support in the skin model; (2) the construction of the 3D in vitro skin model and; (3) the investigation of the dose-dependent effects of solar radiation on HaCaT cells in the skin model in comparison with the …

Biomedical Applications Of Vibrational Spectroscopy: Oral Cancer Diagnostics, Hugh Byrne, Isha Behl, Genecy Calado, Ola Ibrahim, M. Toner, Sheila Galvin, Claire M. Healy, Steven Flint, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Vibrational spectroscopy, based on either infrared absorption or Raman scattering, has attracted increasing attention for biomedical applications. Proof of concept explorations for diagnosis of oral potentially malignant disorders and cancer are reviewed, and recent advances critically appraised. Specific examples of applications of Raman microspectroscopy for analysis of histological, cytological and saliva samples are presented for illustrative purposes, and the future prospects, ultimately for routine, chairside in vivo screening are discussed.

Discrimination Of Immune Cell Activation Using Ramanmicro-Spectroscopy In Anin-Vitro & Ex-Vivo Model, Neha Chaudhary, Thi Nguyet Que Nguyen, Daniel Cullen, Aidan Meade, Claire Wynne

Articles

Activation and proliferation of immune cells such as lymphocytes and monocytes are appropriate inflammatory responses to invading pathogens and are key to overcoming an infection. In contrast, uncontrolled and prolonged activation of these cellular signalling pathways can be deleterious to the body and result in the development of autoimmune conditions. The understanding of cellular activatory status therefore plays a significant role in disease diagnosis and progression. Conventional automated approaches such as enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and immune-labelling techniques are time-consuming and expensive, relying on a commercially available and specific antibody to identify cell activation. Developing a label-free method for …

Raman Microspectroscopy For The Discrimination Of Thyroid And Lung Cancer Subtypes For Application In Clinical Cytopathology, Declan O'Dea

Doctoral

The branch of cytology known as cytopathology, studies and diagnoses diseases at a cellular level, and is a useful method for detecting cancer. The procedures used to attain cytological samples for diagnostic purposes, such as aspiration and exfoliative methods are safe, accurate and cost-effective. Histochemical and immunohistochemical (IHC) techniques are commonly applied to cytological samples to aid cancer diagnosis, however multiple limitations occur using these methods for the diagnosis of thyroid cancer (TC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is the prominent diagnostic method used for the initial investigation of thyroid nodules but is limited …

Vibrational Spectroscopy Of Liquid Biopsies For Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, Dinesh Medipally, Daniel Cullen, Valérie Untereiner, G.D. Sockalingum, Adrian Maguire, T.N.Q. Nguyen, Jane Bryant, Emma Noone, Shirley Bradshaw, Marie Finn, Mary Dunne, Aoife M. Shannon, John Armstrong, Aidan Meade, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Background: Screening for prostate cancer with prostate specific antigen and digital rectal examination allows early diagnosis of prostate malignancy but has been associated with poor sensitivity and specificity. There is also a considerable risk of over-diagnosis and overtreatment, which highlights the need for better tools for diagnosis of prostate cancer. This study investigates the potential of high throughput Raman and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy of liquid biopsies for rapid and accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Methods: Blood samples (plasma and lymphocytes) were obtained from healthy control subjects and prostate cancer patients. FTIR and Raman spectra were recorded from plasma …

Comparability Of Raman Spectroscopic Configurations: A Largescale Cross-Laboratory Study, Shuxia Guo, Hugh Byrne, Shiyamala Duraipandian, Fiona Lyng, Claudia Beleites, Ute Neugebauer

Articles

The variable configuration of Raman spectroscopic platforms is one ofthe major obstacles in establishing Raman spectroscopy as a valuable physicochemicalmethod within real-world scenarios such as clinical diagnostics. For such real worldapplications like diagnostic classification, the models should ideally be usable to predictdata from different setups. Whether it is done by training a rugged model with data frommany setups or by a primary-replica strategy where models are developed on a‘primary’setup and the test data are generated on‘replicate’setups, this is only possible if the Raman spectra from different setups are consistent, reproducible, and comparable.However, Raman spectra can be highly sensitive to the …

Effect Of Hemolysis On Fourier Transform Infrared And Raman Spectra Of Blood Plasma, Dinesh Medipally, Daniel Cullen, Valérie Untereiner, Jane Bryant, Ganesh D. Sockalingum, Thi Nguyet Que Nguyen, Emma Noone, Shirley Bradshaw, Marie Finn, Mary Dunne, Aoife M. Shannon, John Armstrong, Aidan Meade, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Hemolysis is a very common phenomenon and is referred as the release of intracellular components from red blood cells to the extracellular fluid. Hemolyzed samples are often rejected in clinics due to the interference of hemoglobin and intracellular components in laboratory measurements. Plasma and serum based vibrational spectroscopy studies are extensively applied to generate spectral biomarkers for various diseases. However, no studies have reported the effect of hemolysis in blood based vibrational spectroscopy studies. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of hemolysis on infrared and Raman spectra of blood plasma. In this study, prostate cancer plasma samples (n …

Vibrational Spectroscopy For In Vitro Monitoring Stem Cell Differentiation, Francesca Ravera, Esen Efeoglu, Hugh Byrne

Other resources

Stem cell technology has attracted considerable attention over recent decades due to its enormous potential in regenerative medicine and disease therapeutics. Studying the underlying mechanisms of stem cell differentiation and tissue generation is critical, and robust methodologies and different technologies are required. Towards establishing improved understanding and optimised triggering and control of differentiation processes, analytical techniques such as flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, RNA in situ hybridisation analysis, and fluorescence-activated cell sorting have contributed much. However, progress in the field remains limited because such techniques provide only limited information, as they are only able to address specific, …

An Investigation Into The Application Of Raman Spectroscopy For Cervical Cancer Screening, Damien Traynor

Doctoral

aman spectroscopy is a powerful tool that has the potential to be, used for cervical cancer screening. It is a label-free, low-cost method providing a biochemical fingerprint of a given sample. The objective of this thesis was to address issues associated with the application of Raman spectroscopy for cervical cancer screening and to demonstrate the potential for triage of HPV positive cases. The first study investigated hormonal effects due to the menstrual cycle, the use of hormone- based contraceptives (HC) and the onset of menopause on Raman spectra of cervical cells and determined if these changes would affect the ability …

The Potential Of Biobanked Liquid Based Cytology Samples For Cervical Cancer Screening Using Raman Spectroscopy., D. Traynor, S. Duraipandian, R. Bhatia, K. Cuschieri, C. M. Martin, J. J. O'Leary, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Patient samples are unique and often irreplaceable. This allows biobanks to be a valuable source of material. The aim of this study was to assess the ability of Raman spectroscopy to screen for histologically confirmed cases of Cervical Intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) using biobanked liquid based cytology (LBC) samples. Two temperatures for long term storage were assessed; 80°C and -25°C. The utility of Raman spectroscopy for the detection of CIN was compared for fresh LBC samples and biobanked LBC samples. Two groups of samples were used for the study with one group associated with disease (CIN 3) and the other associated …

Discrimination Of Breast Cancer From Benign Tumours Using Raman Spectroscopy, Fiona Lyng, Damien Traynor, Thi Nguyet Que Nguyen, Aidan Meade, Fazle Rakib, Rafif Al-Saady, Erik Goormaghtigh, Khalid Al-Saad, Mohamed H. Ali

Articles

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide, with an estimated 1.7 million cases and 522,000 deaths in 2012. Breast cancer is diagnosed by histopathological examination of breast biopsy material but this is subjective and relies on morphological changes in the tissue. Raman spectroscopy uses incident radiation to induce vibrations in the molecules of a sample and the scattered radiation can be used to characterise the sample. This technique is rapid and non-destructive and is sensitive to subtle biochemical changes occurring at the molecular level. This allows spectral variations corresponding to disease onset to be detected. The aim …

Improved Performance Of Near Infrared Excitation Raman Spectroscopy Using Reflective Thin-Film Gold On Glass Substrates For Cytology Samples, Sinead J. Barton, Kevin O'Dwyer, Marion Butler, Adam Dignam, Hugh Byrne, Luke O'Neill, Bryan M. Hennelly

Articles

Confocal near-infrared Raman spectroscopy has been shown to have applications in the area of clinical biology. A source wavelength in the near infrared is preferred over visible wavelengths for inspecting biological samples due to superior wavenumber resolution and reduced photodamage. However, these excitation sources have a number of drawbacks when compared to lasers in the visible wavelength region, including the requirement to use expensive highly pure crystal substrates such as Raman grade calcium fluoride as well as long acquisition times due to the lower Raman scattering efficiency. This paper investigates the use of a reflective substrate comprising a low cost …

Recent Advances In The Vibrational Spectroscopic Diagnosis Of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Declan O'Dea, Fiona Lyng, Siobhan Nicholson, Finbar O'Connell, Aoife Maguire, Alison Malkin

Articles

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide accounting for 1.69 million deaths in 2015. Studies have indicated a 5 year survival rate of 8%–15% in western countries, although a survival rate as low as 1% has been demonstrated for late stage diagnosis. With the advent of targeted therapies, it is imperative to accurately differentiate non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) subtypes in order to ensure efficacy of treatment for patients. Immunohistochemistry and molecular techniques for the diagnosis of NSCLC are increasingly part of the diagnostic algorithm and clinical work-up of lung cancer patients, however due to the limitation …

Multivariate Statistical Methodologies Used In In-Vitro Raman Spectroscopy: Simulations And Applications For Drug And Nanoparticle Interactions, Mark Edward Keating

Doctoral

Raman spectroscopy is a growing technology in the fields of in-vitro drug and nanoparticle screening. The label free capability provided by vibrational spectroscopy, as well as the ability of the technique to probe the chemical nature of samples, makes it a good candidate for use in these fields. Crucial to the progress of these methods is the development and validation of robust and accurate multivariate statistical analysis protocols. In this thesis, both established and novel methods are examined using both real and simulated datasets. In particular, simulated datasets are used to validate and assess the accuracy of these methods in …

Label-Free Discrimination Analysis Of De-Differentiated Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells, Mesenchymal Stem Cells And Their Vascular And Osteogenic Progeny Using Vibrational Spectroscopy, Claire Moloney, Jennifer Mcintyre, Adrian Maguire, Roya Hakimjavadi, Denise Burtenshaw, Gillian Casey, Mariana Di Luca, Mariana Di Luca, Bryan Hennelly, Hugh Byrne, Paul A. Cahill

Doctoral

The accumulation of vascular smooth muscle (SMC)-like cells and stem cell-derived myogenic and osteogenic progeny contributes significantly to arteriosclerotic disease. This study established whether label-free vibrational spectroscopy can discriminate de-differentiated ‘synthetic’ SMCs from undifferentiated stem cells and their myogenic and osteogenic progeny in vitro, compared with conventional immunocytochemical and genetic analyses. TGF-β1- and Jagged1-induced myogenic differentiation of CD44+ mesenchymal stem cells was confirmed in vitro by immunocytochemical analysis of specific SMC differentiation marker expression (α-actin, calponin and myosin heavy chain 11), an epigenetic histone mark (H3K4me2) at the myosin heavy chain 11 locus, promoter transactivation and mRNA transcript levels. Osteogenic …

Raman Spectroscopic Detection Of High-Grade Cervical Cytology: Using Morphologically Normal Appearing Cells, Shiyamala Duraipandian, Damien Traynor, Padraig Kearney, Cara M. Martin, John J. O'Leary, Fiona Lyng

Articles

This study aims to detect high grade squamous intraepithelial cells (HSIL) by investigating HSIL associated biochemical changes in morphologically normal appearing intermediate and superficial cells using Raman spectroscopy. Raman spectra (n = 755) were measured from intermediate and superficial cells from negative cytology ThinPrep specimens (n = 18) and from morphologically normal appearing intermediate and superficial cells from HSIL cytology ThinPrep specimens (n = 17). The Raman data was subjected to multivariate algorithms including the standard principal component analysis (PCA)-linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) together with random subsets cross-validation for discriminating negative cytology from …

Improved Removal Of Blood Contamination From Thinprep Cervical Cytology Camples For Raman Spectroscopic Analysis, Damien Traynor, Shiyamala Duraipandian, C.Ara M. Martin, John J. O'Leary, Fiona Lyng

Articles

There is an unmet need for methods to help in the early detection of cervical precancer. Optical spectroscopy-based techniques, such as Raman spectroscopy, have shown great potential for diagnosis of different cancers, including cervical cancer. However, relatively few studies have been carried out on liquid-based cytology (LBC) pap test specimens and confounding factors, such as blood contamination, have been identified. Previous work reported a method to remove blood contamination before Raman spectroscopy by pretreatment of the slides with hydrogen peroxide. The aim of the present study was to extend this work to excessively bloody samples to see if these could …

A Study Of Hormonal Effects In Cervical Smear Samples Using Raman Spectroscopy, D. Traynor, P. Kearney, I. Ramos, C. M. Martin, J. J. O'Leary, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool that has the potential to be used as a screening method for cervical cancer. It is a label-free, low-cost method providing a biochemical fingerprint of a given sample. The objective of this study was to address patient-to-patient variability contributed by hormonal effects due to the menstrual cycle, the use of hormone-based contraceptives (HC) and the onset of menopause, and to determine if these changes would affect the ability to successfully identify dyskaryotic cells. Raman spectra were recorded from unstained ThinPrep cervical samples (45 cytology negative and 15 high-grade dyskaryosis (high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, HSIL) …

Investigation Of Wavenumber Calibration For Raman Spectroscopy Using A Polymer Reference, Dongyue Liu, Hugh Byrne, Luke O'Neill, Bryan M. Hennelly

Conference papers

Raman spectroscopy is an optical technique that can be used to evaluate the biomolecular composition of tissue and cell samples in a real-time and non-invasive manner. Subtle differences between datasets of spectra obtained from related cell groups can be identified using multivariate statistical algorithms. Such techniques are highly sensitive to small errors, however, and, therefore, the classification sensitivity of Raman spectroscopy can be significantly impacted by miscalibration of the optical system due to small misalignments of the optical elements and/or variation in ambient temperature. Wavenumber calibration is often achieved by recording the spectrum from a wavenumber reference standard, such as …

Development Of A High Throughput (Ht) Raman Spectroscopy Method For Rapid Screening Of Liquid Blood Plasma From Prostate Cancer Patients, Dinesh Medipally, Adrian Maguire, Jane Bryant, John Armstrong, Mary Dunne, Marie Finn, Fiona Lyng, Aidan Meade

Articles

Extensive research has been undertaken on the examination of tissue biopsies using vibrational spectroscopic techniques. However, fewer studies have focused on less invasive and commonly acquired blood samples. Recent studies have shown the ability of Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to discriminate between non-cancer controls and cancer cases using blood serum or plasma. Even though many studies have proposed Raman spectroscopy as a potential diagnostic tool in various cancers, the Raman spectroscopic technique has not been introduced as a routine clinical technology. This is due to multiple drawbacks with the application of the technique, including sample preparation, the …