In Britain, a painless alternative to biopsy has been created - a nanoplaster for cancer diagnostics
Kyiv • UNN
In Britain, a painless nanoplaster has been developed for cancer diagnostics. It collects a "molecular fingerprint" of cells without damaging tissues, unlike traditional biopsy.
Scientists from King's College London have developed a revolutionary medical patch with millions of ultra-thin nanoneedles that allow painless and non-invasive acquisition of molecular information from tissues - without removing samples, as in traditional biopsies. This could completely change the approach to diagnosing and monitoring diseases, including oncological and neurodegenerative ones. This is reported by UNN with reference to Рhys.
Details
Biopsies are performed on millions of patients worldwide every year to detect diseases. But this procedure is invasive, often painful, and not always safe. In addition, each biopsy takes a piece of tissue, which limits the possibility of repeated studies or accurate analysis, especially in organs such as the brain.
The new technology offers a different solution. Nanoneedles, which are 1000 times thinner than a human hair, are able to penetrate tissues painlessly without damaging them. They read the "molecular fingerprint" of cells - lipids, proteins and mRNA - and transmit it for analysis using mass spectrometry and artificial intelligence. This allows to accurately determine whether a tumor is present, how it changes under the influence of treatment, and to track the progress of the disease in dynamics.
This is the most promising achievement in 12 years of our research in the field of nanoneedles. The new technology opens up fundamentally new opportunities for patients with brain cancer, Alzheimer's disease, as well as for the development of personalized medicine
As part of preclinical trials, the patch was applied to samples of brain tumors obtained from both humans and laboratory mice. The method demonstrated the ability to collect multidimensional information from different types of cells without any tissue damage. This makes it possible to conduct repeated tests from the same area - something that was previously impossible.
The development is planned to be implemented during neurosurgical operations. For example, the patch can be applied directly to a suspicious area of brain tissue, and in 20 minutes get a result that will help to decide whether to remove part of the tissue or not.
Nanoneedles are manufactured using the same technologies as computer microchips. This allows them to be integrated into conventional medical instruments: bandages, endoscopes, even contact lenses.
This could be the beginning of the end of painful biopsies. We have opened a new path to safe, accurate and comfortable diagnostics that will change the medicine of the future
The study is published in the scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology.