Tapping into the full potential of E-TRF and biosensors
Aqsens Health’s E-TRF method and its biochemical and chemical sensors are designed and developed to build a comprehensive view of the diseases at a low-cost, making large-scale screening a concrete possibility. They will also help in the discovery of new disease biomarkers. In this blog post our Chief Scientific Officer Janne discusses the main capabilities of our E-TRF method and explains why we use two different types of sensors in our analyses.
Why do we need new disease detection methods?
The costs of healthcare are continuously rising because of the growing population, and more specifically the growing aging population. This trend calls for new preventive health actions, like establishing screening programs for high-impact diseases. In other words, we need to develop new cost-efficient and accurate ways to detect diseases at their early stage.
At Aqsens Health we are contributing to a healthier society by developing low-cost and accurate screening tests using non-invasive sampling, like urine and saliva. In many cases these non-invasive sample matrices could almost be described as an untapped opportunity that traditional detection methods don’t utilize to their full potential. Our sensors on the other hand, were specifically developed to tap into this yet unexplored world.
Why use both biosensors and chemical sensors?
Aqsens Health’s E-TRF method uses two types of sensors – biochemical (biosensor) and chemical. These two sensors work quite differently and detect different things, complementing each other and measuring conditions and diseases from different angles. When used in combination, they give us an accurate view of our health and its changes.
Chemical sensors are either non-specific, or reaction specific. This means that they do not necessarily detect any specific biomarker, but rather look at the overall chemical molecular environment of a sample. With chemical sensors we typically create a qualitative fingerprint of the health condition in question.
Biosensors are specific towards the targets in question, or semi-specific to the wanted target groups. Their targets are also far more complex, but can be discovered using our biomarker enrichment and classification process. Biosensors can, for example, detect specific enzymes, peptides or other signaling molecules.
What does our development and selection process for sensors look like?
Biosensors are straightforward to develop – the process is short and focuses on the natural ability of phages to adapt quickly to the changed conditions. The biosensors are developed using an in-vitro selection process and internal quality control mechanisms.
The adaptability of phages makes them extremely versatile and they can be directed to look for a wide variety of different targets, even outside of the field of health care.
The selection of chemical sensors is done using our internal “reverse screening process” in combination with our vast chemical sensor library. The selection process is relatively simple and quick to perform.
Could the sensors be used to detect general health indicators, such as inflammation or iron balance?
The short answer is yes, they can be used to detect inflammation or, for example, our bodies’ iron balance.
When measuring inflammation using E-TRF and our sensors, the biosensor measures cytokines, and the chemical sensor measures reactive oxygen species (also known as ROS’s).
Our chemical sensor measures the outcome of the immune response against the bacteria, while our biosensor measures the specific protein and the reaction – the signaling part of this immune response. Together the sensors provide more information about a person’s physiological status at a given time point, without the need for invasive blood tests.
By fine tuning the biosensors and by using them in combination with chemical sensors, it is also possible to classify different inflammations from each other. For example, bacterial or viral caused inflammation or arthritis originated inflammation can all be distinguished from each other with our method.
When measuring iron balance and iron binders with E-TRF, we can measure the whole iron metabolism of the human body. Our biosensor measures the level of ferritin, while the chemical sensor measures the amount of iron. This gives us information about possible imbalances in the body.
Changes in our bodies’ iron metabolism are often in part connected to different diseases from malaria to cancer. For example, if we find too few iron ions in the sample, it could mean that the person has anemia, troubles related to their bone-marrow health, internal bleeding, or malnutrition.
Wide range of intriguing possibilities
Our sensor combination and E-TRF create a wide range of possibilities in detecting different biomedically important targets. As our research progresses, E-TRF and our sensors continuously prove to be excellent detection methods in classifying different diseases and physiological states.
Here I discussed only a few examples of things we can measure when we combine the biological and chemical worlds through our two sensors and E-TRF. You can read more about the E-TRF method and biosensors in our latest publication.
Janne Kulpakko
Chief Scientific Officer
Aqsens Health Oy
In case you missed the previous blog post by our CSO Janne about our E-TRF method and biomarkers, you can read it here.
