Dominik Zietkowski1, Thomas R. Eykyn1, Geoffrey S. Payne1, Nandita M. deSouza1
1Cancer Research UK Clinical Magnetic
Resonance Research Group, The Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, UK
Understanding the pattern of observed changes of mobile lipid resonances would help establish them as a biomarker of drug response. In this study, changes in mobile lipid resonances and their saturation following exposure of HeLa cells to the anti-mitotic drug paclitaxel were investigated using diffusion-weighted (DW) HR-MAS spectroscopy. It was observed that paclitaxel-induced apoptosis is associated with an increase of mobile lipid resonances (including unsaturated lipids) at 24h and a corresponding increase in lipid droplet formation. The pattern of changes in unsaturated lipids observed by 1H NMR may serve as a non-invasive time-course biomarker of apoptotic cell death.