Retinoblastoma, diagnosis with bioluminescence

Thanks to a new methodology based on bioluminescence it will be possible to diagnose eye cancer early in vivo , without resorting to invasive methods such as biopsy. This is what researchers at the University of Shanghai hypothesize, who have developed a new technique, called BLI (bioluminescence imaging), which is based on the visualization of the light emitted by an organism or by a part of it. During the study, published in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science , the scientists genetically engineered cells from human retinoblastoma (RB), a severe form of eye cancer that affects children from an early age, by inserting genes into them to GFP (green fluorescent protein) and Luciferase; two proteins capable of generating, respectively, the phenomenon of fluorescence and bioluminescence. The modified RB cells were injected into immunosuppressed laboratory mice, in which they induced the development of cancer. Thanks to bioluminescence imaging, it has been possible to visualize the growth of cancer cells and the formation of metastases in different parts of the body, right from the early stages of development. The application of this technique in humans could therefore favor a sensitive qualitative and quantitative localization of retinoblastoma, guaranteeing a non-invasive and, above all, very early diagnosis, allowing immediate and more effective chemotherapy treatment. From: Experimental Center, First People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China. Ji X, Cheng L, Wei F, Li H, Wang M, Tian Y, Chen X, Wang Y, Wolf F, Li C, Huang Q. [ wikipedia photo]