新的微型貼片可能在血液測試中消除對針的需要

新的微型貼片可能在血液測試中消除對針的需要

Hate needles? Well, have we got good news for you.

討厭針嗎?嗯，我們有好消息要告訴你。

In an attempt to combat our reliance on needles for diagnostic testing, engineers from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have created a microneedle patch that is attached to the skin and can detect trace amounts of disease biomarkers with extreme sensitivity, replacing the lengthy process of blood draws. Studded with tiny microneedles, the patches may look sinister but are supposedly "pain-free", and can even be used by the patient without supervision in the comfort of their own home.

為了克服我們在診斷測試中對針的依賴，來自圣路易斯華盛頓大學麥凱維工程學院的工程師們發(fā)明了一種微針貼片，它附著在皮膚上，并能以極高的靈敏度檢測微量的疾病生物標記物，取代漫長的抽血過程。這種貼片上布滿了微小的微針，看起來可能很邪惡，但實際上是“無痛”的，甚至可以讓病人在自己舒適的家中，在沒有監(jiān)督的情況下使用。

Many diseases can be diagnosed through the detection of proteins that circulate in the blood – whether that be as a consequence of the disease, such as inflammatory markers that may highlight the presence of autoimmune disorders, or molecules that directly cause diseases, such as from pathogens or drugs. These biomarkers provide a rapid method for diagnosis and testing, but current techniques require invasive and expensive procedures of blood drawing and lab testing before results can be received.

許多疾病都可以通過檢測血液循環(huán)中的蛋白質(zhì)來診斷——無論是疾病的結(jié)果，如可能凸顯自身免疫性疾病存在的炎癥標志物，還是直接導致疾病的分子，如病原體或藥物。這些生物標志物為診斷和檢測提供了一種快速的方法，但目前的技術(shù)需要侵入性和昂貴的抽血和實驗室檢測程序，才能得到結(jié)果。

Jack Dunhill

Instead, the patches utilize another source of these biomarkers – the dermal interstitial fluid (ISF). This fluid exists between blood vessels and cells, containing nutrients and a variety of important molecules needed for all the cellular processes in the body, and making up around 26% of the body’s water. Reaching the dermal ISF is easy, requiring a tiny puncture just below the skin surface.

相反，貼片利用了這些生物標志物的另一來源——真皮間質(zhì)液(ISF)。這種液體存在于血管和細胞之間，含有體內(nèi)所有細胞活動所需的營養(yǎng)物質(zhì)和各種重要分子，約占人體水分的26%。到達真皮ISF很容易，只需要在皮膚表面下做一個小穿刺。

“They go about 400 microns deep into the dermal tissue,” Professor Srikanth Singamaneni, whose lab developed the microneedle patches, said in a statement. “They don’t even touch sensory nerves.”

“它們能深入到真皮組織約400微米，”斯里坎斯·辛加馬尼教授在一份聲明中說，他的實驗室開發(fā)了這種微針貼片。“它們甚至不觸及感覺神經(jīng)。”

To tap into this incredible diagnostic resource, the microneedle patch needs to be extremely sensitive. Although the ISF is rich in biomarkers, difficulty drawing enough from the body for reliable testing has previously made them not viable for clinical use. So, the engineers employed tiny fluorescent labels that glow in the presence of the target biomarkers, called plasmonic-fluors. These nanoprobes have exploded in popularity amongst researchers recently, owing to their incredible sensitivity that is nearly 800 times the sensitivity of conventional fluorescent markers. Alongside that, plasmonic-fluors were markedly faster, allowing them to be utilized in a patch for a quick test.

為了利用這種難以置信的診斷資源，微針貼片必須非常敏感。盡管ISF含有豐富的生物標記物，但難以從人體中提取足夠的生物標記物進行可靠的檢測，這使得ISF無法用于臨床。因此，工程師們使用了微小的熒光標記，在目標生物標記物面前發(fā)光，稱為等離子體熒光。這些納米探針最近在研究人員中大受歡迎，因為它們驚人的靈敏度，幾乎是傳統(tǒng)熒光標記靈敏度的800倍。除此之外，等離子體熒光明顯更快，允許它們在一個貼片中用于快速測試。

When used on mice for a variety of different biomarkers, the patches were effective at testing, whilst not suffering the drawbacks of tissue destruction and patient disturbance that repeated blood sampling has.

當用在小鼠身上作為多種不同的生物標志物時，貼片在測試中是有效的，同時不會像重復抽血那樣存在組織破壞和患者不適的缺陷。

The researchers now hope the patches, with more testing, could be used in clinical settings for either constant biomarker monitoring, such as COVID-19 testing (which plasmonic-fluors have shown incredible promise in already), or instant diagnostics in emergency rooms.

研究人員現(xiàn)在希望，帶有更多檢測功能的貼片可以用于臨床環(huán)境，用于持續(xù)的生物標志物監(jiān)測，如COVID-19檢測(等離子體熒光已經(jīng)顯示出令人難以置信的前景)，或用于急診室的即時診斷。

“When someone complains of chest pain and they are being taken to the hospital in an ambulance, we’re hoping right then and there, the patch can be applied,” said Jingyi Luan, one of the lead authors of the paper.

“當有人抱怨胸痛，然后被救護車送往醫(yī)院時，我們希望馬上就能貼上貼片，”該論文的主要作者之一欒婧一(音)說。

For now, the patches must be validated for a variety of conditions, and undergo rigorous clinical trials before they can be approved. The current study is a proof-of-concept in mice, and many biomarkers will need to be verified for direct links to disease before the patches will be of use.

目前，貼片必須經(jīng)過多種條件的驗證，并在獲得批準之前進行嚴格的臨床試驗。目前的研究是在老鼠身上進行的概念驗證，在貼片使用之前，許多生物標記物需要驗證與疾病的直接聯(lián)系。