Healthy glow

At Wilfrid Laurier University, Nirosha J. Murugan (right) monitors photonic signals emitted from the brain to diagnose changes in cell behaviour associated with cancer, with the goal to ultimately use light patterns to thwart disease progression. supplied

Translating a language of life into novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools at Wilfrid Laurier University

What are some of the signals associated with the building blocks of life that enable our bodies to function? And how can better understanding them help us detect and address problems like cancer?

These questions have inspired an illuminating discovery at Wilfrid Laurier University, where Nirosha J. Murugan, distinguished research chair and assistant professor in the Department of Health Sciences, and her team found that the human brain emits light – and that this faint, spontaneous light known as ultra-weak photon emissions can reveal life-saving information.

“My interest has always been in trying to understand the language of life,” she says. “The broader scientific community spent a lot of effort on understanding the chemical language, and developed tools and therapeutics based on that language. But if we understand the photonic language, we can potentially develop patterns of light that are specific to reprogramming cells.”

In essence, Dr. Murugan proposes to monitor photonic signals emitted from the brain to diagnose changes in cell behaviour associated with cancer – and ultimately address such changes through the application of light patterns.

Metabolic changes expressed in light signals

Dr. Murugan “started by looking at the light being emitted by biology to determine whether it is meaningful or random.” The quest to establish what signals from a healthy brain look like and how they change when there are problems is based on insights into the state of cancer cells, where different electrical signatures are associated with certain mutations.

Mitochondria, often called the “powerhouses of the cell,” exhibit different behaviour in cancer.

As they generate the fuel and building blocks for rapid growth, they also produce signalling molecules like reactive oxygen species (ROS), she explains. “This inspired me to see if there’s a link between different metabolisms and light emissions.”

Finding that a relatively high metabolism typically correlates to more ROS light being emitted, Dr. Murugan set out to record different states of cancer cells – and compare them to their healthy counterparts.

“One of the first early and distinctive indicators of cancer is a shift in how cells process energy,” she says. “Since our hypothesis is that even subtle physiological changes can be reflected in light signatures, with the right optical tools, we can reveal the earliest dynamics of energy use in its disease course.”

Sensitive equipment picking up ‘one photon at a time’

What makes Laurier uniquely suited for groundbreaking discoveries in brain science is cutting-edge research infrastructure and “a very interdisciplinary environment,” says Dr. Murugan, who co-directs the Center for Tissue Plasticity and Biophysics (TPAB) with Nicolas Rouleau, a neuroscientist and bioengineer.

“The point is to bridge disciplines as well as provide students with interdisciplinary training and experience of working in the lab,” she says. “It’s really our collaborations – for example, between neuroscientists, bioengineers and physicists – that have made this project so strong and quick in terms of generating output.”

Singling out “photons emitted from cancerous or pre-cancerous cells represents a considerable challenge – and relies on very sensitive equipment,” Dr. Murugan notes. “Moonlight on a very dim night, for example, would be measured as about several millions of photons a second. The light emission we measure from the body is several magnitudes lower, in the order of hundreds of photons per second.”

Enabling such measurements is a “double-dark chamber, where we restrict as much light as possible,” she adds. “We use single-photon detectors that are so sensitive that they pick up one photon at a time.”

Dr. Murugan also envisions “the photon detection tool to reveal patterned signals that can then be used for reprogramming [cells]. If we know the patterns and signals of light coming out, we can potentially use this information for designing applied photonic signals to manipulate the biology.”

From early detection to targeted intervention

The investigation into the low-intensity light – which is continuously released by all cells – builds on Dr. Murugan’s expertise in using weak electromagnetic signals to “rewrite” cancerous cells, including for breast, brain, prostate and pancreatic cancer, while avoiding damage to healthy cells.

Part of her motivation comes from the link where higher cancer mortality rates are associated with delayed diagnoses, including in brain cancer like glioblastoma, where diagnostics rely on costly and invasive procedures to detect biomarkers that are highly variable between individuals.

Imagine being able to detect a change in cell metabolism through light signals measured through the skull rather than having to wait for cancer to accumulate mutations and manifest in neurological symptoms and changes that can be seen by scans and tested with biopsies, she says. “The sensitivity of photon signalling provides much earlier insights.”

In glioblastoma – the most common and most aggressive cancer originating in the brain – glial cells, which are meant to support neurons, start dividing abnormally and growing into a tumour that kills neurons instead. In addition to understanding what causes these cells to behave abnormally – and enabling a timely diagnosis – Dr. Murugan hopes to advance treatment options that preserve remaining neurons.

Such targeted treatments can also help address the issue of cognitive impairments following chemotherapy, known colloquially as “chemo brain, where chemotherapy drugs used to kill cancer also kill other cells, including neurons in the brain.”

Research into ultra-weak photon emissions from the brain at Laurier advances a dual goal: to “first, give us an understanding of the signals that can be monitored coming out of the body – and how to use them to detect early signs and progression of disease,” she says. “Second, it provides insights on how to modulate biology using light and other applied signals to reduce the need for invasive procedures.”

Yet implications of such discoveries go far beyond, insists Dr. Murugan. “Understanding photonic signals from the body – alongside the well-established electrical and chemical signalling – gives us another perspective on the language of life.”

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