Establishment of new fluorescent cytology targeting cancer cell-specific porphyrin metabolism abnormalities

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K19617
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 57:Oral science and related fields
• Research Institution: Tsurumi University
• Principal Investigator: Satomura Kazuhito 鶴見大学, 歯学部, 教授 (80243715)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 戸田 麗子 (徳山麗子) 鶴見大学, 歯学部, 学内講師 (20380090) ; 井出 信次 鶴見大学, 歯学部, 助教 (00611998) ; 寺田 知加 鶴見大学, 歯学部, 助教 (40460216) ; 竹部 祐生亮 鶴見大学, 歯学部, 助教 (50807097) ; 伊藤 由美 鶴見大学, 歯学部附属病院, 講師 (00176372) ; 舘原 誠晃 鶴見大学, 歯学部, 准教授 (90380089)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 蛍光診断 / 細胞診 / 口腔癌 / 口腔白板症 / 上皮性異形成 / 5-ALA / ALA-Cytology

Outline of Final Research Achievements

There is an urgent need to develop safe, simple, economical, and highly sensitive diagnostic methods that enable early detection and minimally invasive treatment of all cancers, including oral cancer. Histopathological diagnosis by biopsy, which is currently performed, has problems such as surgical invasion, and cytology still has problems in sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, in this study, we focused on fluorescence diagnosis using 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA), which can detect cancer cells with high sensitivity and specificity based on abnormalities in porphyrin metabolism within cancer cells. By applying this principle to cytology, we aimed to establish a new cytology that does not rely solely on conventional cell morphology and staining.

Free Research Field

外科系歯学、再生医療

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

従来の細胞診での診断根拠となる癌細胞の形態学的特徴に加え、本研究で確立した新たALA-Cytologyでは、細胞内代謝異常という機能面の評価を併用できるため、簡便でより正診率の高い新たな細胞診の確立に繋がると考えられる。本法が診断のスタンダードになれば、生検による外科的侵襲を避けられる上、これまでの細胞診の感度および特異度を改善することに直結し、きわめて学術的・社会的意義の高い研究である。