Abdollahi, A. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2020

The biomedical sensor Cell-Fit-HD4D, reveals individual tumor cell fate in response to microscopic ion deposition.

Here we present the biomedical sensor cell-fluorescent ion track hybrid detector4D (Cell-Fit-HD4D) to reveal individual tumor cell fate in response to microscopic ion deposition in ion beam therapy. The sensor enables long-term monitoring of single tumor cells after clinical ion beam irradiation in combination with single-cell dosimetry. Cell-Fit-HD4D is read out in-situ by conventional optical microscopy. Direct visualization of a clinical ion beam is hereby possible for the first time. The possibility to reveal fate of individual cells from a cell cohort demonstrates that our biomedical sensor clearly differs from conventional experiments that characterize cellular response after radiation on a population level. Cell-Fit-HD4D is therefore used to mimics the clinical situation of a defined tumor depth during tumor treatment by ion beam therapy. Our biomedical sensor is able to provide crucial input for current mechanistic approaches to biophysical modelling of the effect of ionizing radiation on biological matter. In the clinical context, obtaining multi-dimensional physical and biological information on individual tumor cells is an important step to further transform ion beam therapy into a highly precise discipline within oncology.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Carbon ion dosimetry on a fluorescent nuclear track detector using widefield microscopy

Fluorescent nuclear track detectors (FNTD) are solid-state dosimeters used in a wide range of dosimetric and biomedical applications in research worldwide. FNTDs are a core but currently underutilized dosimetry tool in the field of radiation biology which are inherently capable of visualizing the tracks of ions used in hadron therapy. The ions that traverse the FNTD deposit their energy according to their linear energy transfer (LET) and transform colour centres to form trackspots around their trajectory. These trackspots have fluorescent properties which can be visualized by fluorescence microscopy enabling a well-defined dosimetric readout with a spatial component indicating the trajectory of individual ions. The current method used to analyse the FNTDs is laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSM). LSM enables a precise localization of track spots in x, y and z however due to the scanning of the laser spot across the sample, requires a long time for large samples. This body of work conclusively shows for the first time that the readout of the trackspots present after 0.5 Gy carbon ion irradiation in the FNTD can be captured with a widefield microscope (WF). The WF readout of the FNTD is a factor [~]10 faster, for an area 2.97 times the size making the method nearly a factor 19 faster in track acquisition than LSM. The dramatic decrease in image acquisition time in WF presents an alternative to LSM in FNTD workflows which are limited by time, such as biomedical sensors which combine FNTDs with live cell imaging.

biophysics↗