Atomic force microscopy for revealing micro/nanoscale mechanics in tumor metastasis: from single cells to microenvironmental cues.

Mechanics are intrinsic properties which appears throughout the formation, development, and aging processes of biological systems. Mechanics have been shown to play important roles in regulating the development and metastasis of tumors, and understanding tumor mechanics has emerged as a promising way to reveal the underlying mechanisms guiding tumor behaviors. In particular, tumors are highly complex diseases associated with multifaceted factors, including alterations in cancerous cells, tissues, and organs as well as microenvironmental cues, indicating that investigating tumor mechanics on multiple levels is significantly helpful for comprehensively understanding the effects of mechanics on tumor progression.

Measurement of Radial Elasticity and Original Height of DNA Duplex Using Tapping-Mode Atomic Force Microscopy.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can characterize nanomaterial elasticity. However, some one-dimensional nanomaterials, such as DNA, are too small to locate with an AFM tip because of thermal drift and the nonlinearity of piezoelectric actuators. In this study, we propose a novel approach to address the shortcomings of AFM and obtain the radial Young's modulus of a DNA duplex.

Effects of temperature and cellular interactions on the mechanics and morphology of human cancer cells investigated by atomic force microscopy.

Cell mechanics plays an important role in cellular physiological activities. Recent studies have shown that cellular mechanical properties are novel biomarkers for indicating the cell states. In this article, temperature-controllable atomic force microscopy (AFM) was applied to quantitatively investigate the effects of temperature and cellular interactions on the mechanics and morphology of human cancer cells.

Nanoscale monitoring of drug actions on cell membrane using atomic force microscopy.

Knowledge of the nanoscale changes that take place in individual cells in response to a drug is useful for understanding the drug action. However, due to the lack of adequate techniques, such knowledge was scarce until the advent of atomic force microscopy (AFM), which is a multifunctional tool for investigating cellular behavior with nanometer resolution under near-physiological conditions. In the past decade, researchers have applied AFM to monitor the morphological and mechanical dynamics of individual cells following drug stimulation, yielding considerable novel insight into how the drug molecules affect an individual cell at the nanoscale.

Activation of human ether-a-go-go related gene (hERG) potassium channels by small molecules.

Human ether-a-go-go related gene (hERG) potassium (K(+)) channels play a critical role in cardiac action potential repolarization. Mutations that reduce hERG conductance or surface expression may cause congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS). However, the channels can be inhibited by structurally diverse small molecules, resulting in an acquired form of LQTS.

Drift compensation and faulty display correction in robotic nano manipulation.

Random drift and faulty visual display are the main problems in Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) based robotic nanomanipulation. As far as we know, there are no effective methods available to solve these problems. In this paper, an On-line Sensing and Display (OSD) method is proposed to solve these problems.

Detecting CD20-rituximab specific interactions on lymphoma cells using atomic force microscopy.

Elucidating the underlying mechanisms of cell physiology is currently an important research topic in life sciences. Atomic force microscopy methods can be used to investigate these molecular mechanisms. In this study, single-molecule force spectroscopy was used to explore the specific recognition between the CD20 antigen and anti-CD20 antibody Rituximab on B lymphoma cells under near-physiological conditions.