- Finding biomarkers of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease that can be detected via bodily fluids such as saliva, urine, and blood could help researchers identify and develop new drugs and treatments.
- A group of researchers last year developed a wireless device that can detect a tiny number of molecules, specifically for SARS-CoV-2 strains.
- Now, they have shown their device can be adapted to detect molecules linked to Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
A team of researchers based at the University of California, San Diego, who developed a wireless, handheld device to detect specific biomolecules, have now shown their device can detect molecules associated with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
The device was originally developed to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It works using aptamers, or short strands of DNA or RNA that bind only to specific molecules. When binding takes place on the single-atom-thick graphene layer in the machine, electrical energy is able to flow, which creates a positive reading confirming the molecule has been detected.
This previous study showed their device was capable of detecting specific strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, when only a very small number of viruses were present.
In the most recent research by this team, researchers have shown that their device is capable of detecting different forms of beta-amyloid and tau, peptides that characterize Alzheimer’s disease, and α-synuclein—a peptide found in higher levels in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease.
They used samples taken from the autopsied brains of deceased patients to test the device’s ability to detect these molecules.
Their findings were published in Biophysics and Computational Biology.
The number of people living with Alzheimer’s disease in the U.S. could rise from 6.7 million people today, to
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