New Scanning Method Using Dead Transparent Mouse Can Improve Cancer Drug Tests [Study]

A new strategy to scan cancer has been discovered. A new study suggests that the new technique can help gauge the effectiveness of cancer treatment.

Transparent Mouse to Scan Cancer

Professor Ali Ertürk of the Helmholtz Munich research facility saw the development of a technique to turn a dead mouse translucent in 2018. Now that certain tissues have been chemically highlighted, his team has been able to scan them in unprecedented depth.

Drugs are frequently first tested on mice. The new scanning technique, according to scientists, may revolutionize medical research, BBC reported.

The procedure, according to the researchers, reveals a lot more detail than current scanning methods. The group has identified malignant tumors in the early phases of development in one of the first applications.

This, per Prof. Ertürk, is crucial since cancer medications must first be proven to eradicate tumors in mice before being tested on humans.

You would only see large tumors on your MRI and PET scans. However, the new scanning technology displays tumors at the single-cell level, something other scanners cannot possibly do. The cancer returns after a few years of life extension with current medications since those minute tumors, which were never noticeable, were never removed during development, according to Erturk.

His new scanning technique can only be applied to deceased mice and it can provide information on the progression of the cancer and possibly whether a therapy was effective.

After giving mice cancer, he rendered them translucent and after scanning them using his novel method. A small number of mice could be made transparent to assess the drug's efficacy.

The entire fat content and color from the corpse of the mouse must be removed chemically in order to create the translucent mouse. It eventually takes on the appearance of a slightly flexible clear plastic toy. All of its internal organs and nerves are still present but are almost undetectable.

The method to make a mouse translucent was created by Prof. Ertürk five years ago. The new scanning methodology makes the most of it.

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What Makes The New Cancer Scanning Method Promising?

This fascinating and distinctive scanning technology has a wealth of potential for advancing our understanding of how our bodies function and what goes wrong in illnesses like cancer, according to Dr. Rupal Mistry, research information manager at Cancer Research UK.

Even if the technology can only be used to look at dead mice's bodies, it has the potential to reveal a lot about how cancer forms in its early stages. Researchers will be better equipped to assess the effects of various medications and treatments if they can see tumors in the context of the complete body.

Technology advancements like this are crucial to advancing development and, ideally, will result in improved cancer detection, treatment, and prevention techniques.

The scans are superior to current ones in a number of ways. First, the ability to analyze diseases in the context of the entire body first allows researchers to have a much better knowledge of the effects of various medications and treatments.

Second, since the 3D photos are also available online, researchers can access a library without using additional mice to conduct the same experiment or investigate various animal parts. Prof. Ertürk said the method could drastically minimize the need for lab animals.

In order to better understand how cells evolve in the human body, Dr. Nana-Jane Chipampe of the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge is enthusiastic about the idea of adopting the novel scanning approach. She currently has to cut tissues into really small parts to analyze tissues under a microscope. However, she will soon have access to 3D vision and could no longer wait. According to her, seeing the details in 3D can help them potentially discover new tissues, cells, and diseases that will significantly advance their understanding of how diseases arise.

The study was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.