Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory neurodegenerative disease, considered to be autoimmune in origin. Post-translational modification of central nervous system proteins, including glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and myelin basic protein (MBP), through citrullination of arginine residues, may lead to exposure of neoepitopes, triggering autoimmunity. Here we investigated the expression of citrullinated proteins in active MS lesions, MS normal appearing white matter and control brain white matter. We demonstrate increased citrullinated GFAP and MBP by immunohistochemistry and western blotting in areas of ongoing demyelination, suggesting a pivotal role for deimination of GFAP and MBP in MS pathogenesis MS.

Raman spectroscopy provides a unique biochemical fingerprint capable of identifying and characterizing the structure of molecules, cells, and tissues. In cervical cancer, it is acknowledged as a promising biochemical tool due to its ability to detect premalignancy and early malignancy stages. This review summarizes the key research in the area and the evidence compiled is very encouraging for ongoing and further research. In addition to the diagnostic potential, promising results for HPV detection and monitoring treatment response suggest more than just a diagnosis prospective. A greater body of evidence is however necessary before Raman spectroscopy is fully validated for clinical use and larger comprehensive studies are required to fully establish the role of Raman spectroscopy in the molecular diagnostics of cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer affecting women worldwide but mortality can be decreased by early detection of pre-malignant lesions. The Pap smear test is the most commonly used method in cervical cancer screening programmes. Although specificity is high for this test, it is widely acknowledged that sensitivity can be poor mainly due to the subjective nature of the test. There is a need for new objective tests for the early detection of pre-malignant cervical lesions. Over the past two decades, Raman spectroscopy has emerged as a promising new technology for cancer screening and diagnosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of Raman spectroscopy for cervical cancer screening using both Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) and Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion (SIL) classification terminology. ThinPrep® Pap samples were recruited from a cervical screening population. Raman spectra were recorded from single cell nuclei and subjected to multivariate statistical analysis. Normal and abnormal ThinPrep® samples were discriminated based on the biochemical fingerprint of the cells using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Principal Component Analysis – Linear Discriminant Analysis (PCA-LDA) was employed to build classification models based on either CIN or SIL terminology. This study has shown that Raman spectroscopy can be successfully applied to the study of routine cervical cytology samples from a cervical screening programme and that the use of CIN terminology resulted in improved sensitivity for high grade cases.

Vibrational spectroscopy analyses vibrations within a molecule and can be used to characterise a molecular structure. Raman spectroscopy is one of the vibrational spectroscopic techniques, in which incident radiation is used to induce vibrations in the molecules of a sample, and the scattered radiation may be used to characterise the sample in a rapid and non-destructive manner. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a complementary vibrational spectroscopic technique based on the absorption of IR radiation by the sample. Molecules absorb specific frequencies of the incident light which are characteristic of their structure. IR and Raman spectroscopy are sensitive to subtle biochemical changes occurring at the molecular level allowing spectral variations corresponding to disease onset to be detected. Over the past 15 years, there have been numerous reports demonstrating the potential of IR and Raman spectroscopy together with multivariate statistical analysis techniques for the detection of a variety of cancers including, breast, lung, brain, colon, oral, oesophageal, prostate and cervical cancer. This paper discusses the recent advances and the future perspectives in relation to cancer screening applications, focussing on cervical and oral cancer.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative inflammatory disease where an autoimmune response to components of the central nervous system leads to a loss of myelin and subsequent neurological deterioration. People with MS can develop primary or secondary progressive disease (PPMS, SPMS) and differentiation of the specific differences in the pathogenesis of these two courses, at the molecular level, is currently unclear. Recently, lipidomics studies using human biofluids, mainly plasma and cerebrospinal fluid, have highlighted a possible role for lipids in the initiation and progression of MS. However, there is a lack of lipidomics studies in MS on CNS tissues, such as normal-appearing white matter (NAWM), where local inflammation initially occurs. Herein, we developed an untargeted reverse phase ultra-performance liquid chromatography time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (RP-UPLC-TOF MS^E)-based workflow, in combination with multivariate and univariate statistical analysis, to assess significant differences in lipid profiles in brain NAWM from post-mortem cases of PPMS, SPMS and controls. Groups of eight control, nine PPMS and seven SPMS NAWM samples were used. Correlation analysis of the identified lipids by RP-UPLC-TOF MS^E was undertaken to remove those lipids that correlated with age, gender and post-mortem interval as confounding factors. We demonstrate that there is a significantly altered lipid profile of control cases compared with MS cases and that progressive disease, PPMS and SPMS, can be differentiated on the basis of the lipidome of NAWM with good sensitivity, specificity and prediction accuracy based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Metabolic pathway analysis revealed that the most altered lipid pathways between PPMS and SPMS were glycerophospholipid metabolism, glycerophosphatidyl inositol (GPI) anchor synthesis and linoleic acid metabolism. Further understanding of the impact of these lipid alterations described herein associated with progression will provide an increased understanding of the mechanisms underpinning progression and highlight possible new therapeutic targets.