Introducing Discrete Frequency Infrared Technology for High-Throughput Biofluid Screening

Area of Science:

• Biomedical optics
• Molecular spectroscopy
• Diagnostic technology

Background:

• Early diagnosis significantly impacts patient survival and quality of life.
• Biofluids are crucial for early diagnosis due to accessibility and biological relevance.
• Mid-infrared (mid-IR) imaging of dried biofluid deposits offers a high-throughput molecular analysis method.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a rapid, reproducible mid-IR imaging technique for molecular analysis of dried biofluids.
• To demonstrate the potential of this method for rapid cancer diagnostics using liquid biopsies.

Main Methods:

• Utilized tuneable quantum cascade lasers for discrete frequency infrared data collection.
• Employed targeted frequency scanning to optimize spectral quality, reproducibility, and reduce acquisition time.
• Analyzed dried serum spots, measuring relative standard deviation (RSD) at different frequency counts (199, 14, and 9 discrete frequencies).

Main Results:

• Achieved high reproducibility with RSDs of 0.6%, 5.1%, and 15% for 199, 14, and 9 discrete frequencies, respectively.
• Successfully classified 40 unique dried liquid biopsies from brain, breast, lung, and skin cancer patients against 10 non-cancer controls.
• Achieved classification accuracies of up to 90% with a rapid 2.4 cumulative seconds acquisition time.

Conclusions:

• The developed mid-IR imaging methodology is reproducible and suitable for high-throughput molecular analysis.
• This technique offers a proof-of-concept for rapid, accurate diagnostics of various cancers using liquid biopsies.
• The method holds significant promise for improving early cancer detection and patient management.