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Truly sick or simply scared?
August 20, 2007BOSTON - Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered a way to increase the sensitivity of test strips that will enable creation of a portable biosensor that can address a major concern associated with incidents involving chemical or nerve agents - the need to quickly distinguish between individuals who have been exposed and the "worried well."
The sensor components resemble a pregnancy test strip and a small glucose testing meter. Its development will be discussed by principal investigator Yuehe Lin at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Every disease has biomarkers, a change in the proteins that announces something is wrong. Lin and his team are creating a nanoparticle "label" that can increase the ability of a sensor to detect and interpret the message of biomarkers.
"Current test strip based-immunoassay technology has very good selectivity, but it can only give a positive or negative response," Lin said.
The researchers are working with an "electrochemical immunoassay approach." This involves using the antibody of a specific disease - a protein produced in response to an invading bacterium or other foreign substance - to attract the biomarker. Lin found that labeling a second antibody with a nanoparticle amplifies the biomarker's signal. Greater amplification means more precise readings.
Researchers at PNNL are developing a portable biomonitor to rapidly evaluate tiny samples of blood or saliva for exposure to nerve agents.
Lin achieves this by removing the iron from a nanoparticle-sized ball of the protein ferrin, creating an empty "cage" called apoferritin, which he then loads with another metal, such as cadmium. The cadmium-fi lled cage is attached to one end of the reporting antibody, and the immuno-reaction product becomes electroactive.
"The electrochemical signal is amplified several hundreds to thousand times because of the metal ions," Lin said. "This level of sensitivity will allow detectors to be very precise in identifying the concentration of biomarkers in biological samples."
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
"Current test strip based-immunoassay technology has very good selectivity, but it can only give a positive or negative response," Lin said.
The researchers are working with an "electrochemical immunoassay approach." This involves using the antibody of a specific disease - a protein produced in response to an invading bacterium or other foreign substance - to attract the biomarker. Lin found that labeling a second antibody with a nanoparticle amplifies the biomarker's signal. Greater amplification means more precise readings.
Researchers at PNNL are developing a portable biomonitor to rapidly evaluate tiny samples of blood or saliva for exposure to nerve agents.
Lin achieves this by removing the iron from a nanoparticle-sized ball of the protein ferrin, creating an empty "cage" called apoferritin, which he then loads with another metal, such as cadmium. The cadmium-fi lled cage is attached to one end of the reporting antibody, and the immuno-reaction product becomes electroactive.
"The electrochemical signal is amplified several hundreds to thousand times because of the metal ions," Lin said. "This level of sensitivity will allow detectors to be very precise in identifying the concentration of biomarkers in biological samples."
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Nerve Agents Current Events and Nerve Agents News RSSGulf War research panel finds 1 in 4 veterans suffers from illness caused by toxic exposure
At least one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness, a condition caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas, and no effective treatments have yet been found, a federal panel of scientific experts and veterans concludes in a landmark report released Monday.
Sniffing out a better chemical sensor
Marrying a sensitive detector technology capable of distinguishing hundreds of different chemical compounds with a pattern-recognition module that mimics the way animals recognize odors, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a new approach for "electronic noses."
Researcher working on destruction of chemical weapons
America's war on terror includes fighting the dark side of deadly chemical agents, and Texas A&M University chemist Dr. Frank Raushel is helping with the fight by developing an enzyme that might neutralize one such chemical agent, the organophosphates.
"Green" method decontaminates deadly nerve agents
Research by two scientists has resulted in an exciting new method for rapidly and safely destroying toxic agents such as chemical weapons and pesticides.
New use for stem cells found in war on terrorism
For more than a decade, Steve Stice has dedicated his research using embryonic stem cells to improving the lives of people with degenerative diseases and debilitating injuries. His most recent discovery, which produces billions of neural cells from a few stem cells, could now aid in national security.
Nature's weapon against nerve agents
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Alzheimer's medication shows promise in treating nerve agent and pesticide poisoning
A medication used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease can be used to protect people against the toxic effects of nerve agents and certain insecticides.
The Cochrane Library - Update of the latest developments of key health care conclusions and their implications for practice
This alert service highlights some of the key health care conclusions and their implications for practice published this week in The Cochrane Library, 2005 Issue 1.
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