Glucose monitors have been used for decades to monitor diabetes, but now they may also be harnessed to detect biomarkers for a variety of diseases. Researchers in China are now taking advantage of contemporary glucometers to detect biomarkers previously requiring expensive and bulky equipment.
The team filled liposomes with an enzyme that produces glucose and made the liposomes so that they break open when in the presence of a molecule being looked for. When the liposome containers burst open, they release the cargo that in turn raises the levels of glucose of the solution they’re in. A simple glucometer can be used to measure the glucose in the solution, and any increase after the administration of the liposomes is indicative of the presence of the target molecules.
The team tested the technology by looking for thrombin. They showed that a consumer glucometer was able to accurately measure the concentration of thrombin using the lyposome technique the team developed.
Study in Applied Materials & Interfaces: Enzyme-Encapsulated Liposome-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Enabling Sensitive Personal Glucose Meter Readout for Portable Detection of Disease Biomcardiac…
Via: ACS
Image credit: Phil King