A Novel Microwave Resonant Sensor for Measuring Cancer Cell Line Aggressiveness

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 22; no. 12; p. 4383
• Main Authors: D'Alvia, Livio, Carraro, Serena, Peruzzi, Barbara, Urciuoli, Enrica, Palla, Luigi, Del Prete, Zaccaria, Rizzuto, Emanuele
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 09-06-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Biological properties; Biomedical materials; biosensor; Biosensors; Bone cancer; Breast cancer; cancer aggressiveness; cancer cell lines; Cell Adhesion; Design specifications; Dielectric properties; Experiments; Humans; MCF-7 Cells; measurement of dielectric properties; Medical research; Microwaves; Neoplasms; Network analysers; noninvasive measurements; Pediatrics; Resonant frequencies; Resonators; Sarcoma; Sensors; Simulation; Software; Tumors; microwaves; biosensor; cancer aggressiveness; measurement of dielectric properties; breast cancer; cancer cell lines; noninvasive measurements; osteosarcoma
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s22124383

The measurement of biological tissues' dielectric properties plays a crucial role in determining the state of health, and recent studies have reported microwave biosensing to be an innovative method with great potential in this field. Research has been conducted from the tissue level to the cellular level but, to date, cellular adhesion has never been considered. In addition, conventional systems for diagnosing tumor aggressiveness, such as a biopsy, are rather expensive and invasive. Here, we propose a novel microwave approach for biosensing adherent cancer cells with different malignancy degrees. A circular patch resonator was designed adjusting its structure to a standard Petri dish and a network analyzer was employed. Then, the resonator was realized and used to test two groups of different cancer cell lines, based on various tumor types and aggressiveness: low- and high-aggressive osteosarcoma cell lines (SaOS-2 and 143B, respectively), and low- and high-aggressive breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231, respectively). The experimental results showed that the sensitivity of the sensor was high, in particular when measuring the resonant frequency. Finally, the sensor showed a good ability to distinguish low-metastatic and high-metastatic cells, paving the way to the development of more complex measurement systems for noninvasive tissue diagnosis.