LOS ANGELES— Scientists have created smart contact lenses that can diagnose cancer by examining chemicals in the wearer’s eyes.
Researchers say the lenses detect tumors by identifying certain substances present in tears during the early stages of the disease. This breakthrough could open the door to an inexpensive “one size fits all” screening program.
A team from the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation explains that lentils capture carriers called exosomes, secret messengers within our bodies. Found in cells, they are tiny bubble-like vesicles secreted in blood, saliva, urine and tears.
On the surface are a host of proteins, some of which are fueled by cancer, viral infections or injury. They can also strongly influence the regulation, progression and spread of tumors, raising hopes that the proteins may lead scientists to better cancer drugs.
Minimizing treatment delays improves survival rates. Each month can increase the risk of death from cancer by about 10%. The Terasaki Institute team claims that contact lenses are equipped with microchambers bound to antibodies to which exosomes adhere.
In experiments, they have been successfully tested on exosomes secreted into laboratory fluids from 10 different tissue and cancer cell lines, and on tears from 10 human volunteers.
“This Antibody-Conjugated Signaling Microchamber Contact Lens (ABSM-CL) can be colored for detection with specific nanoparticle-labeled antibodies for selective visualization. This offers a potential platform for cancer pre-screening and a simple, rapid, sensitive, cost-effective and non-invasive supportive diagnostic tool,” the study authors write in a press release.
Exosomes were once thought to be the dumping ground for unwanted materials in the body. Scientists now know that they transport different biomolecules between cells.
“Exosomes are a rich source of markers and biomolecules that can be targeted for several biomedical applications,” said Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., Director and CEO of TIBI. “The methodology that our team has developed greatly facilitates our ability to tap into this source.”
Previous attempts to exploit their importance have been hampered by problems of sufficient isolation to provide enough information. Current methods involve tedious, complicated, time-consuming and expensive equipment – taking at least 10 hours to complete. The team’s simple technique eliminates these problems. Additionally, tears are a better and cleaner source of exosomes than other bodily fluids.
The chambers and lens were constructed using direct laser cutting and engraving rather than conventional die casting. Additionally, they chemically modified the surfaces to activate them for antibody binding.
Standard methods involve metallic or nano-carbon materials in expensive clean rooms. Exosomes are scanned using a pair of antibodies on gold nanoparticles to visualize potential signs of cancer. Both are specific for two different surface markers found on all exosomes, explains Professor Khademhosseini.
Further analysis showed that the contact lenses identified exosomes in solutions of three cell lines with different surface markers and using different combinations of antibodies.
“The detection and non-detection patterns of exosomes from the three different cell lines were as expected, thus validating the ability of ABSM-CL to accurately capture and detect exosomes with different surface markers,” the researchers write.
The team describes the results, published in Advanced functional materialsas “encouraging”.
“With these encouraging results, this ACSM-PCL should be the next-generation smart contact lens as an easy-to-use, rapid, and noninvasive monitoring platform for cancer prescreening and supportive diagnosis,” the authors conclude. of the study.
South West News Service writer Mark Waghorn contributed to this report.
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