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- "With the help of light, it is possible to determine complications of diabetes and the boundaries of cancerous tumors"
"With the help of light, it is possible to determine complications of diabetes and the boundaries of cancerous tumors"
Optical technologies are being created in the Russian Federation that make it possible to assess the likelihood of developing complications in diabetes using a simple portable device, instantly determine the boundaries of cancerous tumors, treat malignancies with virtually no side effects, combat psoriasis, and even simulate geological processes. Valery Tuchin, the world's most cited biophotonics scientist, told Izvestia about this in an exclusive interview. The conversation with the specialist took place as part of the Challenge Award roadshow in Saratov, which was awarded to the researcher in the Scientist of the Year nomination. You can apply for the Challenge Award until May 21 on the project's website.
"We have set the task to monitor the condition of the sick body using non-invasive methods"
— You are actively developing the use of optical technologies in medicine. What developments are you currently engaged in?
— With the help of light, it is possible to determine the complications of diabetes and the boundaries of cancerous tumors. Right now we are very concerned about the problem of diabetes. This disease is well diagnosed, but almost all patients develop complications. We have set ourselves the task to monitor the condition of a sick body using non-invasive optical methods. We study tissue glycation, the process by which proteins and lipids attach glucose molecules. As a result, the protein molecule becomes larger in size, crosslinking appears between the protein molecules and the tissue thickens. This means that the entire metabolism is hampered. This happens with diabetes and aging. Diffusion (penetration of one substance into another. — Izvestia) of any molecule is difficult. And we measure the diffusion rate as a marker of the degree of tissue glycation.
At the moment, we are looking for a correlation between the rate of diffusion of molecules in surface tissues, which can be easily measured using light, namely in the skin, in the oral mucosa, on the lip or, for example, the sclera of the eye, and in internal organs, the heart muscle, the brain. Now there is a standard test for glycated hemoglobin. This is one of the markers that can be used to assess the patient's condition. In the future, the degree of glycation of skin proteins will be added to it in the medical record. After we establish reliable relationships for many animals and then for humans between this indicator and the condition of individual organs, we can say, for example, that with such a diffusion coefficient, the patient has a high chance of first having a heart attack and then losing his eyesight, and something needs to be done now.
You've probably seen the oxygen meter. They just put it on your finger, and our device will be about the same. The finger will first need to be moistened with a gel agent, as in ultrasound, and then put on the device. Technically, it's not difficult, the main thing is to know the correlation. I think it will take about five years to put the methodology into practice. We are pioneers in this field. So far, no one in the world has such a diagnostic technique.
— What other pathologies are you working on diagnosing?
— All types of cancer. Skin, kidney, and liver cancers. The principle is based on the fact that when the structure of the malignant tissue changes, the rate of diffusion of test molecules changes. This allows you to determine the boundaries of tumors, which is very important. For example, a doctor works with a biopsy. To perform histology, you must first thinly slice the tissue and use specific dyes. The result will be at least the next day or even a week later, and the doctor needs to make a conclusion during the operation. Then you can look at the diffusion. I cut off a piece of the biopsy, put it on a slide, dropped our solution, and then put a camera or other measuring device. You see a picture in the form of a different distribution of the diffusion rate on it and you can determine the border of the tumor.
Now we are establishing and collecting statistics that tumor and normal tissue have different rates of diffusion. Moreover, we are looking for the optimal test molecule by which this can be measured. All molecules work. But we have the most popular glycerin and glucose right now.
"Any CT machine can be easily retrofitted with an optical unit"
— You have been developing the optical coherence tomography method for a long time, what progress have you made in this area?
— The advantages of this technique in comparison with computed tomography are its harmlessness for the patient. However, since it is an optical technology, it is difficult to conduct research in the depths of tissues with its help. Only if they are transparent, such as the eye, or examined on the surface of the skin. But I would consider optical coherence tomography as an addition to CT and ultrasound. They should all work together.
We offer another such technology. Let's say a patient has had a CT scan or has been illuminated with any high-energy beam. They reached the tumor. And then it should glow under the influence of ionizing radiation and this light can be seen. But if the tumor is deep and small in size, then you will not see the light from it until you clear the skin. That is, we are working to release these photons even from the depths and register them. Sensitivity can be increased several times, that is, to determine the very beginning of tumor formation, which is not yet possible to do by other methods, for example, using ultrasound.
And if you take X-ray photons, they will go deep and there they will excite luminescence in cancer cells that are labeled with special dyes. They can be injected or drunk.
Any CT machine can be easily retrofitted with an optical unit and use these techniques.
— Techniques using artificial intelligence are actively developing now, do you apply them somehow?
— Yes, with the help of AI, we are training our measurement system based on optical coherence tomography for reliable recognition of basal cell carcinoma. This is a skin cancer, and it needs to be distinguished from benign tumors.
— Let's move from diagnosis to treatment. Are there any achievements?
— We use classical optical methods for treatment. For example, photodynamic cancer therapy. The advantage of the technique is that there are fewer side effects compared to other approaches. This is how superficial tumors are usually treated, but sometimes breast cancer is also treated. Now we are increasing their sensitivity to light not only by using dyes, but also by saturating them with nanoparticles. This allows them to be additionally heated and destroy cancer cells more effectively.
Photochemical destruction therapy is also used. We make a combination of nanoparticles with a dye. We can run them systematically, we can run them locally. It depends on the technology, and then we irradiate with light to the place where it reaches. Using the enlightenment we achieve with our agents allows us to increase the intensity of light deep in the tissue by at least 20-30%. That is, to increase the effectiveness of treatment by 20-30%.
We compete with foreign researchers in this, because it is now the cutting edge of science. Today, five to six scientific groups in the world are engaged in this.
"Surprisingly, you can use simple glycerin for this"
— What other types of therapy are you developing?
— We are also working with a classic method of treating skin diseases — PUVA therapy. It involves the use of photoactive substances along with irradiation of the skin with long-wavelength ultraviolet radiation. This is how psoriasis and vitiligo are treated. Psoriasis is similar to cancer, it is sometimes called skin cancer because there is an uncontrolled proliferation of cells. And they don't mature in a month, as they should, but in weeks. Piles of unformed cells are formed. It's a complicated disease. It is still unclear what the reason is. And we suggest opening a window of skin transparency. So that the ultraviolet light passes to the required depth. Surprisingly, you can use simple glycerin for this. It is ideal, saves the supply of ultraviolet light and accelerates its action so that there are no side effects. We first need to confirm the effectiveness of the technique in animals, and then in humans. It will take several years.
This is our ideology — in order to make our lives easier and accelerate implementation, we try to integrate into existing technologies and improve them. It's always easier than offering something completely alternative. In addition, with this approach, we use all the advantages of existing technologies.
— All these developments are related to medicine, but do you have any projects in other fields?
— We had an interesting study of collagen sponges. Collagen is the main component of connective tissue. It is often used for medical purposes. We soaked these sponges with one of our agents. It collapsed and became thinner, but heavier. That is, it got soaked and became thinner. We began to find out how this was possible. It turned out that all this is known in geology — these are the so-called lenses. They change when water is pumped underground to rupture formations, and oil or gas is released. It's the same technology. We have collagen, and they have soil. In both cases, porosity and wettability of the material are important.
We have already suggested that researchers who deal with this topic model their geological processes using our simple models. We can use them to calculate how much liquid needs to be pumped into the rock to get the desired effect. It's easy enough to scale.
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