Yale University scientists have created a detection system that uses sensitive nanowire sensors to allow doctors to diagnose patients with infectious diseases non-invasively.
Unlike current detection techniques, the system does not rely on dyes or radioactivity. The sensors detect the activation of a particular type of immune cell by antigens — signatures of bacterial, viral or cancerous cells. Previously, Tarek Fahmy and his colleagues demonstrated that the sensors could detect a response by these cells, T cells, to many types of antigen. The new report shows that the sensors can now distinguish the specific antigen or antigens activating the immune system and so potentially detect disease.
Doctors could eventually use the sensors to immediately diagnose patients' illnesses, or to test whether medication had successfully treated a disease, the researchers say.
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Nanomedicine: Disease nanosensors. Nature 455, 1010 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/4551010c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4551010c
