Label-free distinguish proliferative and apoptotic responses of glioma cells with terahertz metamaterials

Qingtong Wang, Ke Li, Huizhong Chi, Yang Fan, Boyan Li, Rongrong Zhao, Qindong Guo, Yanhua Qi, Wenhan Wang, Yanpeng Shi, Hong Liu, Aimin Song, Hao Xue*, Gang Li, Yifei Zhang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Glioma exhibits various sensitivities to the same treatment due to its high invasiveness and heterogeneity, which are typically assessed by the proliferative and apoptotic cell activities. Currently, classical label methods for cell proliferation and apoptosis detection are destructive and time-consuming, and spectral and electrochemical technologies without label can hardly distinguish the proliferation and apoptosis responses. Here, a label-free approach to simultaneously detect the proliferative and apoptotic features of glioma cells with terahertz metamaterials is reported for the first time. The biosensor comprises periodic metamaterial resonators, whose frequency shifts in ∆f as the cell number and state vary. Three glioma cell lines under the most sophisticated therapies, i.e., chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are investigated. Various frequency-shift responses are observed for the live and apoptotic cells, revealing different refractive indices for them. By using standard biological assays to identify cell numbers and proliferation and apoptosis rates, the relation between ∆f and the numbers of live and apoptotic cells is fitted, which consequently reveals the relation of ∆f with respect to both proliferation and apoptosis rates unprecedentedly. This work paves a new way to study the proliferative and apoptotic responses of tumor cells, showing promising potential to guide individualized tumor treatments fast and label-free.

Original languageEnglish
Article number133887
JournalSensors and Actuators B: Chemical
Volume389
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Aug 2023

Keywords

  • Apoptosis rate
  • Glioma cell
  • Label-free
  • Proliferation rate
  • Terahertz metamaterials

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