Towards in vivo melanin radicals detection in melanomas by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy: a proof-of-concept study

Abstract

Melanoma is the most aggressive skin tumour type. Although complete cure can be achieved when the whole tumour is resected, prognostic dramatically drops when melanoma cells reach deeper tissues and lymph nodes. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop accurate tools allowing (i) discriminating benign naevi from malignant tumours and (ii) being able to characterise melanoma infiltration. For that purpose, we exploited the paramagnetic properties of melanin by using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to measure the melanin content in pigmented (B16F10 cancer cells) and non-pigmented melanomas (WM2664 cancer cells) inoculated intradermally in nude mice. Specifically, we took advantage of a new clinical EPR device (1 GHz), which provides sensitive measurements of radical species in vivo. Results showed that the melanin-specific EPR signal increased with tumour growth in pigmented tumours, whereas no EPR signal could be detected in achromic melanomas. These data plead for the development of new EPR spectrometers/imagers with an improved in-depth resolution for the detection of invasive melanomas.

Keywords:

• EPR
• ESR
• melanin
• melanoma

Acknowledgements

This research used the EPR facilities of the technological platform “Nuclear and Electron Spin Technologies” of the Louvain Drug Research Institute.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI, USA) PO1CA190193, and the Fonds Joseph Maisin. Stefania Acciardo is a PhD fellow supported by a Télévie grant (FSR-FNRS).