Investigation of protein-protein interactions in cancer targeted therapy using nanorobots

Abstract

This chapter describes the applications of nanorobots in investigating the mechanisms of rituximab's different efficacies in the targeted therapy of B-cell lymphomas at the individual cellular/molecular level. The chapter begins with an introduction to the new challenges in the field of cancer targeted therapy, taking rituximab targeted therapy in B-cell lymphoma for example. The following section presents a detailed description of the principles and methods of single-molecule techniques based on nanorobots. Next, it presents the microfabricated pillar-based cell immobilization method and discusses how to obtain the topography of individual living mammalian suspension cells based on this immobilization method. Next, it presents how to use nanorobot indentation experiments to measure the mechanical properties of individual cells. Next, the processes of using nanorobots to measure the individual molecular binding forces and three-dimensionally visualize the distribution of CD20 proteins on the lymphoma cell surface with the probe functionalization technology are detailed. The remainder of the chapter presents the specific binding force measurements on different lymphoma patients' cells and discusses its relation to rituximab's variable efficacies. The intent of this chapter is to provide the practical knowledge to begin the investigations on individual cells and molecules with nanorobots.