Innovatie Attaché Tokio
Kugako Sugimoto, January 30, 2014, meer informatie: www.ianetwerk.nl
Nieuwe Alzheimer test
Fast and precise test for Alzheimers disease with one drop of blood
Samenvatting
Dr. Osamu Taikawa van het National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology en professor
Kazuaki Sawada van de Toyohashi Universiteit hebben een nieuwe eenvoudige, snelle en
goedkope maar zeer gevoelige technologie ontwikkelen voor het opsporen van signalen die
duiden op ziekten, zoals de ziekte van Alzheimer. Deze technologie is een combinatie van
microkralen en een beeldsensorchip. Met behulp van deze technologie kan in een druppel
bloed voor minder dan een euro in tien minuten bepaald worden hoeveel amyloïde β peptide
het bevat. Deze simpele methode kan gebruikt worden voor thuisgebruik voor de vroege
detectie van ziekten als ook de monitoring van chronische ziekten. Naar verwachting zal in
2015 een diagnostische test gereed zijn.
Summary
Dr. Osamu Takikawa of National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology and Professor Kazuaki
Sawada of Toyohashi University of Technology presented an easy, fast, low-cost, and
supersensitive technology to detect signals of sickness including Alzheimer’s disease. The
technology combines microbeads and a semiconductor image sensor. The technology is able
to detect amyloid β peptide, a substance that causes Alzheimer’s disease, from one drop of
blood in 10 minutes at a cost of less than one euro. This easy technology can be used for
homecare for early detection and also monitoring of chronic disease. The detection kit is
expected to be ready by the end of 2015.
Details
When humans become ill, a certain type of protein associated with the disease will express
or increase. To diagnose whether a person is sick, the reaction between antigen (a certain
protein associated with the disease) and antibody, a biological marker to react with this
antigen has been used. Conventional technology for this diagnosis uses ELISA* method. A
patient usually goes to a hospital and a paramedic collects blood from the patients. Then,
expensive machines are usually used for analysis. New technology developed by joint
research between the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology (Dr. Takikawa) and
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Toyohashi University of Technology (Prof. Sawada) is also based on antigen-antibody
reactions. However, it detects the slight potential change by using a semiconductor image
sensor while ELISA detects a color change associated with the reaction. A semiconductor
image sensor is able to read the potential change at the surface of reaction site on the chip
with microfluids by changing it into electrical signals. Semiconductor image sensor consists
of 16,384 elements (128 × 128 pixels) and can detect slight potential changes even for
multiple reactions. In addition, for better sensitivity, spherical surface of magnetic
microbeads (0.2~3 μm) provides more attachment sites of antigens compared to the flat
surface of conventional ways (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 Magnetic microbeads attaching antibodies react with targeted proteins (purple) and a
detector catches the potential change.
In a practical use for homecare, a patient collect a drop of blood with using a blood collecting
puncture device. A drop of blood is placed on the plasma separation membrane on the
cassette-type sensor with a chip/microfluid channels (Fig. 2). The sensor is then inserted to
the reading device and is left for 10 minutes to develop reactions. Potential changes during
the reaction are detected and the reading device sends the results into convenient devices
such as mobile phones.
-----NOST Tokyo | Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
3-6-3 Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0011, Japan | T:+81-3-5776-5510 | F:+81-3-5776-5534 | mail@nost.jp
Fig. 2 A drop of blood is placed on the plasma separation membrane for analysis and
cassette-type sensor is inserted in a reading device.
All procedure from pricking the finger to getting the results in a smart phone can be
conducted within 30 min. Cost for one sample would be less than one euro, while ELISA
method costs around 10 times more. As long as biomarkers are available for different
diseases, multiple and simultaneous tests are possible with this device. Early detection of
Alzheimer’s disease will be the main target, while monitoring of other diseases such as
diabetes and infectious diseases can also use this technology. Developers expect to prepare
the products by the end of 2015.
Bronnen
Source
1. Science Portal, Jan. 23, 2014 (in Japanese)
2. Press release, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology Jan. 21, 2014 (in Japanese)
*
ELISA (Wikipedia)
Streamer
The Japanese research teams jointly developed an easy, fast, cheap, and sensitive
technology to detect diseases.
-----NOST Tokyo | Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
3-6-3 Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0011, Japan | T:+81-3-5776-5510 | F:+81-3-5776-5534 | mail@nost.jp