New cell research tools can contribute to revealing the secrets of disease

According to a team from the Ames Laboratory of the US Department of Energy, advances in understanding the rotation of living cells can help researchers 'illuminate' the causes of the deadly disease. The research team described the effect of differential interference interference microscopy on showing nanoparticle motion in living cells.

In the human body, there are many biological nano machines that perform different functions. But according to the team, scientists have only limited understanding of how these nanoscale machines work, especially in cellular environments. Because problems of any nanoscale machine can cause illness, such as Alzheimer's disease, new techniques are needed to contribute to the study of components, dynamics and mechanisms of action. of these nano machines.

In order to understand how nanoscale machines work, scientists have observed many types of movements in nanomachines, which are essential for their function. Movement, or movement, where an object's position is altered, can be monitored by many current techniques. However, rotational movements, which are important and fundamental movements such as translational motion, have not been studied very much due to technical limitations.

Previous techniques, such as single molecule fluorescence or particle tracking, allow only rotational motion to be observed in vitro, such as on Petri dishes. In this new study, the team went beyond the study of vitro motions to observe rotation in vivo environments, or in living cells.

To perform the task, the team relied on the use of gold nanorods, measuring only 25 to 73 nanometers (a bundle that tightened 1,000 nanorods about the size of a human hair). In living cells, these non-toxic nanorods disperse light differently depending on their direction. Using a technique called differential interfering microscopy, or DIC, the team obtained both the direction and location of the gold nanorods in addition to the visual vision of the cell and thus showed get 5-dimensional motion pictures (3-dimensional coordinate space and 2 directions) in living cells. The team said that taking DIC images of gold rods gave them a high angle resolution. This technique has opened the door for a better understanding of the mechanism of action of living nanoscale devices by showing their inner movement complexes.