Five-minute analysis of chemotherapy drugs and metabolites in saliva: evaluating dosage

摘要

Traditional cancer treatment, surgical removal and gamma- or x-ray irradiation, is often augmented by the use of chemotherapy drugs. Theses drugs prevent cancer cell growth through a variety of biochemical mechanisms, but are not target specific and kill other cells. Consequently, the amount administered has a narrow range of safe and effective use. Furthermore, because of the dangerous side-effects of these drugs, clinical trials can not be performed, and a statistical basis for dosage is not available. Instead, the concentration of the drugs and their metabolites are monitored during treatment of cancer patients, Unfortunately current practices require 10-20 mL of blood per analysis, and multiple samples to profile pharmacokinetics may further jeopardize the patient's health. Saliva analysis has long been considered an attractive alternative, but the large sample volumes are difficult to obtain. In an effort to overcome this limitation we have been investigating metal-doped sol-gels to both separate drugs and their metabolites from saliva and generate surface-enhanced Raman spectra. We have incorporated the sol-gel in a disposable pipette format, and generally no more than two drops (100 μL) of sample are required. The detailed molecular vibrational information allows chemical identification, while the increase in Raman scattering by four to six orders of magnitude allows detection of nanomolar concentrations. Preliminary measurements will be presented.