"Love hormone" sensor will detect autism-related markers early
Small amounts of oxytocin, one of biomarkers of autism, will be detectable even in neonates - thanks to a chemical sensor built at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Source: Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS, Grzegorz Krzyżewski
Can certain autism-related markers be detected in a newborn? Researchers at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences have developed a sensor that recognizes the molecules of the "love hormone" - oxytocin, a compound considered one of the biomarkers of autism.
Molecules of various chemical compounds circulate in human blood. One of them is oxytocin, a substance that has various functions in the body but is widely known as the "love hormone". Significant changes in its blood levels suggest a potential incidence of autism. These changes can be detected with a new chemical sensor, designed and built at the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS in Warsaw that selectively detects even small amounts of oxytocin.
Representatives of the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS informed about the research in a release sent to PAP. The results have been published in the journal "Biosensors and Bioelectronics".
Today it appears that in the near future medicine can be revolutionised by new diagnostic devices: sensitive, accurate, fast, and above all small and very cheap. Available at all times and for everyone. Such instruments could detect diseases at very early stages of development, thus contributing to a dramatic increase in the effectiveness of therapies. The key element of this innovative diagnostic equipment must be reliable sensors capable of reacting to the presence of even a small number of molecules of specific chemical compounds.
"In the devices developed by our research team, the substance detecting role is performed by carefully designed and carefully built polymer layers. The main idea is simple: every time we try to build a layer with hollows - molecular gaps - that match the shape and physical and chemical properties of the molecules of the chemical compound that we want to detect in the environment of the sensor" - said Prof. Wlodzimierz Kutner (Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS).
Prof. Kutner\'s team has already developed many polymeric layers that selectively react to even small concentrations of important chemicals including melamine, nicotine, albumin or neopterin (one of the biomarkers of cancer). Oxytocin has just been added to this group.
"It is one thing to identify oxytocin molecules by the polymer layer, and another to read the information that the molecular gaps have been filled" - noted Dr. Zofia Iskierko from Prof. Kutner\'s team and explained: "The signal that indicates the presence of oxytocin in the detection layer is the change of electrical capacitance".
Experimental tests have shown that the new sensor detects micromolar concentrations of oxytocin and reacts to its presence even when it is surrounded by very similar molecules. Prof. Kutner\'s team is working on increasing the sensitivity of the sensor to a level that would allow detection of nanomolar concentrations.
The goal is to achieve sensitivity that would allows to carry out a variety of diagnostic tests on a single, small drop of blood. The experiments performed at the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS labs have also shown that the polymeric detection layer is relatively durable and allows to repeat measurements without sacrificing their sensitivity and selectivity.
According to the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS release, changes in oxytocin concentration in the blood do not clearly indicate that a person is prone to autism. Before diagnosis, it is necessary to check the concentrations of at least some other substances (biomarkers) associated with this disease.
"Our chemical oxytocin sensor is really only a first step toward building a more advanced medical device that would diagnose autism. For some time now we have been working on layers of polymers that react to the presence of two other compounds associated with autism: melatonin (not to be confused with melamine) and gamma-aminobutyric acid" - said research project leader Dr. Piyush S. Sharma (Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS).
A description of the work on the sensor, funded by the Iuventus Plus grant of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, has just been published in the prestigious scientific journal "Biosensors and Bioelectronics" (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2017.09.009).
author: Ludwika Tomala
PAP - Science in Poland
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