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Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) is notable for its high mortality and high metastatic characteristics. The shear force generated by bloodstream provides mechanical signals regulating multiple responses of cells, including metastatic cancer cells, dispersing in blood vessels. We, therefore, studied the effect of shear flow on circulating CRC cells in the present study. The CRC cell line SW620 was subjected to shear flow of 12.5 dynes/cm2 for 1 and 2 h separately. Resulting elevated caspase‐9 and ‐3 indicated that shear flow initiated the apoptosis of SW620. Enlarged cell size associated with a higher level of cyclin D1 was coincident with the flow cytometric results indicating that the cell cycle was arrested at the G1 phase. An elevated phosphor‐eNOSS1177 increased the production of nitric oxide and led to reactive oxygen species‐mediated oxidative stress. Shear flow also regulated epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) by increasing E‐cadherin and ZO‐1 while decreasing Snail and Twist1. The migration and invasion of sheared SW620 were also substantially decreased. Further investigations showed that mitochondrial membrane potential was significantly decreased, whereas mitochondrial mass and ATP production were not changed. In addition to the shear flow of 12.5 dynes/cm2, the expressions of EMT were compared at lower (6.25 dynes/cm2) and at higher (25 dynes/cm2) shear flow. The results showed that lower shear flow increased mesenchymal characteristics and higher shear flow increased epithelial characteristics. Shear flow reduces the malignancy of CRC in their metastatic dispersal that opens up new ways to improve cancer therapies by applying a mechanical shear flow device.

The development of photoacoustic systems is important for the real-time detection of cysteine (Cys), a biothiol in biological systems that serves as a significant biomarker for human health. Advanced photoacoustic (PA) signals with colloidal plasmonic Au nanomaterials rely on the efficient conversion of light to energy waves under moderately pulsed laser irradiation. In this study, we synthesized Cys-capped Au nanorods (Au@Cys NRs) and Cys-capped Au nanoparticles (Au@Cys NPs) through a conjugate of three Cys concentrations (10, 100, and 1000 μM). These plasmonic Au nanomaterials can be used as a PA resonance reagent due to their maximum localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) absorption bands at 650 nm and 520 nm in Au NRs and Au NPs, respectively. Subsequently, the PA signals were noticeably increased proportionally to the concentrations in the Au@Cys NRs and Au@Cys NPs under 658 nm and 520 nm laser irradiation, respectively, according to our portable photoacoustic system. Furthermore, PA signal amplitudes in Cys detection are boosted by ~233.01% with Au@Cys NRs and ~102.84% with Au@Cys NPs enhancement, compared to free Cys, according to ultrasound transducers at frequencies of 3 MHz.