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SPECTROSCOPY
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Raman Spectroscopy Could Facilitate Deployment of Amantadine-Based Cancer Screening Technology— Enabling the Transition from Labs to Villages
Robert V. Chimenti,* James Elliott,† Rashid A. Bux†
*Innovative Photonic Solutions †
BioMark Diagnostics Inc. and
Introduction
Over the past decade, Raman spectroscopy has become a “household name” in the pharmaceutical industry mainly because of its widespread use in areas such as incoming material inspection,1-4 adulterated drug screening,5-6
and process monitoring.7-8
counterfeit/ Lesser
known is how heavily Raman spectroscopy is being investigated in the biomedical industry as a screening tool for various diseases including cancer.9-16
In this article, we discuss the intersection of these
2 industries by looking at an application in which an off -patent drug undergoes a chemical change within patients who have cancer which can be detected in urine via Raman spectroscopy.17
Background
There is now strong empirical evidence demonstrating a correlation between an upregulation of the spermidine/spermine N1
SSAT1 is present
-acetyltransferase (SSAT1) enzyme and the presence of various cancers, including lung cancer, in mammals.18-20
in cells in very low concentrations, making it very diffi cult to detect activity levels, until Dr. Sitar and Dr. Bras from the University of Manitoba developed and later patented a method of detection based on acetylation of the drug amantadine as a smart probe to measure the cell biology.21-24
Amantadine is considered a smart probe in this
case because, after acetylation, it will not enter into any catabolic or anabolic reaction, nor accumulate in the body. As a result, when the blood is fi ltered by the kidney, the N-acetylamantadine in the urine is a true metabolite that is directly proportional to the enzymatic activity of SSAT1.
studies performed around the world aimed at validation of this method for cancer detection and screening.25-29
Submitted: 11/06/2014 Accepted for Publication: 11/19/2014
Chimenti RV, Elliott J, Bux R. Raman spectroscopy could facilitate deployment of amantadine- based cancer screening technology—enabling the transition from labs to villages. Am Pharm Rev. 2015;18(1):10-14.
For the past 10 years, there have been numerous clinical Currently, clinical results are
extremely promising using methods such as solid phase extraction (SPE) and liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS) for the detection of N-acetylamantadine in urine.
Figure 1. Representation of the acetylation of amantadine in mammalian cells.
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| January/February 2015
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