Investigating the effects of Pentoxifylline on human breast cancer cells using Raman spectroscopy

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in a global scenario. In the present study, biochemical changes exerted upon Pentoxifylline (PTX) treatment had been appraised in human breast cancer cells using Raman spectroscopy. There are no clinically approved methods to monitor such therapeutic responses available. The spectral profiling is suggestive of changes in DNA, protein and lipid contents showing a linear relationship with drug dosage. Further, multivariate analysis using principal-component based linear-discriminant-analysis (PC-LDA) was employed for classifying the control and the PTX treated groups. These findings support the feasibility of Raman spectroscopy as an alternate/adjunct label-free, objective method for monitoring drug-induced modifications against breast cancer cells.