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Scientists at Imperial College London, in collaboration with Oxford Nanopore Technologies, have introduced a technique that simultaneously examines numerous biomarkers from a single clinical sample. Traditional blood tests typically focus on detecting one or two biomarkers, but this new approach can identify dozens of varied biomarkers, enhancing diagnostic precision for conditions like heart disease and cancer.
For context, conventional heart failure tests primarily identify common proteins indicating the presence of the disease. This innovative method has the capability to recognize an additional 40 miRNA molecules, presenting the potential for a broader category of biomarkers. This means that proteins, small molecules like neurotransmitters, and miRNA can all be analyzed concurrently from the same sample, offering a more detailed diagnostic perspective.
The study's findings, which tested the method on the blood of healthy participants, were published in Nature Nanotechnology. Caroline Koch, Co-first author from Imperial's Department of Chemistry, highlighted the technique's versatility. "There are many different ways you can arrive at heart failure, but our test will hopefully provide a low-cost and rapid way to find this out and help guide treatment options. This kind of result is possible with less than a milliliter of blood. It's also a very adaptable method so that by changing the target biomarkers it could be used to detect the characteristics of diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative conditions."
The underlying mechanism for this method involves DNA 'barcodes'. These barcodes, consisting of distinct DNA sequences, are designed to latch onto different biomarkers. Upon combining the sample and barcodes, the resulting solution is placed into a handheld device created by Oxford Nanopore—the MinION. This device detects the electrical signatures of each DNA barcode, which a machine-learning algorithm subsequently uses to identify the biomarker type and concentration.
The advantage of these DNA barcodes is two-fold: they can be customized for specific biomarkers, and they negate the need for intricate, potentially bias-inducing sample preparation.
"Working with Oxford Nanopore Technologies, we have been able to take their existing platform and innovate how it can be used, with the addition of DNA barcodes and machine learning to understand the results," stated Professor Joshua Edel, the study's lead researcher from Imperial's Department of Chemistry.
Dr. Alex Ivanov, Co-lead researcher, emphasized the potential of this method. "In principle, we are close to enabling a technology being suitable for clinics, where, in the long run, we hope it could provide a wealth of individualized information for patients with a range of conditions," he explained.
With promising initial outcomes, the research team is now focused on testing clinical samples from heart failure patients to confirm their findings. This technique could also expedite diagnostic processes by analyzing multiple biomarkers simultaneously and assisting in the discovery of new ones.