Characterising cytotoxic agent action as a function of the cell cycle using Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy.

Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) micro-spectroscopy measurements were acquired to study infrared signatures of chemotherapeutic response as a function of the cell cycle. Renal carcinoma Caki-2 cells were exposed to IC50 doses of 5-fluorouracil and Paclitaxel for a period of 24 hours. The inherent cell cycle infrared signatures from untreated and drug-treated cells were successfully retrieved by the construction of a robust SVM able to discriminate the cell cycle phases of this cell line with an average accuracy of 83.7%. The overriding infrared signature observed relates to an apoptotic biochemical response that does not appear to be correlated with the events affected by the drugs' mode of action or the cell cycle. Since apoptosis is a well conserved mechanism among living species, these results suggest that both the stages of proliferation as well as the absence/presence of apoptosis need to be taken into account in order to elucidate the fine biochemical details revealing the immediate cellular response to the drug in order to assign reliable spectral patterns of drug action.