Investigating cellular responses to novel chemotherapeutics in renal cell carcinoma using SR-FTIR spectroscopy

SR-FTIR spectroscopy was evaluated as a technique to discriminate spectral signals of cellular response at the single cell level, when cancer cells are exposed to chemotherapeutics. 5-Fluorouracil, an established drug of known mode of action, was tested against a renal carcinoma cell line (Caki-2), along with two experimental analogues of gold-based compounds. The use of unsupervised principal component analysis (PCA) failed to clearly define any distinction between control and drug treated cell spectra. Supervised principal component linear discriminant analysis (PC-LDA) did have some potential to reveal signatures of cell response and repair but again failed to distinctly discriminate groups of spectra with different drug treatments. Alternatively, clear PCA discrimination was observed in spectra from average cell populations via single point benchtop spectroscopy, probing several cells simultaneously with an increased aperture. The Caki-2 cell line initially appeared to be sensitive to the novel compounds, inducing a cellular response prior to subsequential cell recovery which was assessed by both PCA and cell viability assays. © 2012 The Royal Society of Chemistry.