Full Field Transmission Tomography (FFOTT) for imaging extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) in cancer cell nuclei

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel imaging technique called Full Field Transmission Tomography (FFOTT) to detect extrachromosomal circular DNA in cancer cell nuclei, potentially enabling simpler, label-free cancer diagnosis.

Contribution

It introduces FFOTT as a new imaging method for detecting eccDNA in living cancer cells, offering a label-free alternative to traditional diagnostic techniques.

Findings

FFOTT can identify eccDNA in cancer cell nuclei.

The method provides a simpler, label-free detection approach.

Potential for real-time cancer cell analysis.

Abstract

Detecting the specificity of cancer cells to distinguish them from normal ones is an important step in the general framework of cancer diagnosis. A routine example of such diagnosis in cancerous tissues implies using microscope analysis of fixed, paraffined, and colored slices such as the H&E stain (1). Such a method, which takes place after surgery, is based on carefully analyzing the cell's size and shape. Often, this approach is performed in parallel with more modern genetic tests. Recent research has hypothesized that extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) could be considered a new hallmark of cancer (4). Thus, this research aims to check if using a simple, label-free microscope dynamic analysis performed on living cancer cells would allow efficient and simpler detection of cancer cells.