Polymer innovation fights against global healthcare challenges

Polymer innovation is bringing clever and futuristic new diagnostic tools to the fight against some of our biggest global healthcare challenges. MPN’s David Gray writes

The face of diagnostics has changed massively in recent times. For one thing, the diagnostic process now has a face. The last two decades have seen less reliance on behind-the-scenes lab testing and a rapidly increasing availability of tools that allow for point-of-care diagnostics. Early detection and prevention are now, in many fields of study, far more important than finding cures and treatments.

So the requirement for more innovation in the field is on the up. Increasingly, photographs of overcrowded hospital waiting rooms are becoming grist to the mill of the doom-mongering tabloid press machine. The solution here is not straightforward, and it involves gradually re-modelling the way that healthcare is delivered – so logic dictates that better, faster diagnostics must have a part to play at the front line.

Antibiotic apocalypse

Take for example one of the biggest crises to the healthcare sector today: healthcare-associated infections. Antibiotic resistance has been described as the ‘apocalypse’ for modern healthcare, and threatens to hurl us back to the dark ages. But most commentators have been optimistic that with the right strategy, we can still get on top of the problem.

That means early detection and prevention. The problem is that sending samples for analysis to try and detect dangerous pathogens can take days – not to mention highly trained resources and specialised equipment. That’s why a team of Massachusetts General Hospital investigators has developed a plastic device with the potential of shortening the time required to rapidly diagnose pathogens responsible for healthcare-associated infections from a couple of days to a matter of hours.

The system, dubbed ‘PAD’ (polarisation anisotropy diagnostics), allows for accurate genetic testing in a simple device. Bacterial ribonucleic acid (RNA) is extracted from a sample in a small, disposable plastic cartridge. Following polymerase chain reaction amplification of the RNA, the material is loaded into a two centimetre plastic cube containing optical components that detect target RNAs based on the response to a light signal of sequence-specific detection probes. These optical cubes are placed on an electronic base station that transmits data to a smartphone or computer where the results can be displayed.

Developing world

Disease epidemics, when they start, unfortunately kick off a futile chain of finger pointing and blame assigning. There are always guilty parties who should’ve been more prepared. But at the same time, they ignite a flurry of innovation from those who know that the priority is not identifying how the outbreak could’ve been prevented, but instead ask a more practical question: how do we contain and kill it?

Swiss university École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has developed a device which needs no bulky equipment, making it ideal for use in remote regions of the world.

Using polymer microfluidics, the team, headed by scientist Sebastian Maerkl, came up with a portable device that can run on battery power – thus enhancing its portability. The platform can quantify up to 16 different molecules in less than 0.005 millilitres of blood.

It uses both analogue and digital detection mechanisms. Using the two together means that a drop of blood can be analysed rapidly – this is crucial for making quick decisions on isolation and quarantining.

CAPTION: Microfluidics make great use of polymers for smarter diagnostics

Initial testing was carried out successfully on a test sample with anti-Ebola antibodies. The device was able to show the presence of the virus in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. This was just one of many diagnostic tools developed in rapid response to the Ebola outbreak.

Diagnostics for global challenges

Antibiotic resistance is now a real threat to societies the world over. And the fact is, no new antibiotics have been developed in the last 25 years. While work is being done in the field, experts are turning to other stakeholders for solutions.

Similarly, Ebola is not the first, nor will it be the last major outbreak of a killer virus to strike a remote part of the world.

Diagnostic devices represent one of our best chances of tackling global healthcare challenges. Early detection and prevention is crucial to easing the burden on our health systems, and those overseas.