2D nanomaterial, Ti₃C₂ MXene based sensor to guide lung cancer therapy and management

Major advances in cancer control can be greatly aided by early diagnosis and effective treatment in its preinvasive state. Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in men and women and the first leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. A lot of research attention has been attracted to diagnose and treat lung cancer. Common method of lung cancer treatment is based on COX-2 inhibitors. This is because COX-2 is commonly over-expressed in lung cancer and also the the abundance of its enzymatic product Prostaglandin E2 (PGE₂). Instead of using traditional COX-2 inhibitors to treat lung cancer, here, we report a new anti-cancer strategy recently developed for lung cancer treatment. It adopts more abundant ω-6s such as dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA) in the daily diet and the commonly high levels of COX expressed in lung cancer to promote the formation of 8-hydroxyoctanoic acid (8-HOA) through delta-5-desaturase (D5Di) inhibitor. The D5Di will not only limit the metabolic product, PGE₂ but also promote the COX-2 catalyzed DGLA peroxidation to form 8-HOA, a novel anti-cancer free radical byproduct. Therefore, the measurement of the PGE₂ and 8-HOA levels in cancer cells can be an effective method to treat lung cancer by providing in-time guidance. We will report a novel, low-cost, accurate, and miniature sensor device based on a newly developed 2-dimensional nanosheets, Ti₃C₂ MXene to sensitively, selectively, precisely and effectively detect PGE₂ and 8-HOA in A549 lung cancer cells. Due to multilayered structure and extreme large surface area, metallic conductivity and easy and versatile in surface modification, Ti₃C₂ MXene based sensor will be able to selectively adsorb different molecules through physical adsorption or electrostatic attraction, and lead to a measurable change in the conductivity of the material with high signal to noise ratio.