Hydrogen bonds of interfacial water in human breast cancer tissue compared to lipid and DNA interfaces

The paper presents the results for water confined in a human breast cancerous tissue, a single stranded DNA, a double stranded DNA and in phospholipids (DPPC—D--Phosphatidylcholine, dipalmitoyl). The interfacial water in DNA and lipids is represented by a double band in the region of the OH stretching mode of water corresponding to the symmetric and asymmetric vibrational modes, in contrast to water confined in the cancerous breast tissue where only one band at 3311 cm has been recorded. The marked red-shift of the maximum peak position of the OH stretching mode confirms that the vibrational properties of the interfacial water observed in restricted biological environment differ drastically from those in bulk water. The change of vibrational pattern of behavior may be due to the decoupling of the vibrations of the OH bonds in water molecule or change of the vibrational selection rules at biological interfaces. According to our knowledge Raman vibrational properties of water confined in the normal and cancerous breast tissue of the same patient have not been reported in literature yet. Here we have also presented the first Raman ‘optical biopsy’ images of the non-cancerous and cancerous (infiltrating ductal cancer) human breast tissues.