Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy and Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (¹H NMR) Relaxometry and Diffusometry for the Identification of Colorectal Cancer in Blood Plasma

Abstract

Colorectal cancer is a widespread digestive disease. In this study, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry and diffusometry were used for the identification of specific features associated with colorectal cancer from native and deproteinized blood plasma and blood plasma proteins. The blood samples were collected from patients with confirmed colorectal cancer and from healthy volunteers for comparison. The FT-IR spectra were divided into specific regions. A numeric deconvolution procedure was applied in order to quantify the integrated areas of the peaks of interest which were associated with specific responses due to colorectal cancer. The ¹H NMR T₂- and D-distributions were obtained and quantified. Finally, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to identify the most important NMR and FT-IR parameters for the differentiation between blood of colorectal cancer patients and blood of healthy volunteers.

Keywords:

• Colorectal cancer
• blood plasma
• Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy
• principal component analysis (PCA)
• proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) relaxometry and diffusometry

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that influenced the work reported in this paper.

Funding

This study did not receive any specific support from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.