By Diagnostics World Staff
February 22, 2019 | Technology being developed by researchers at Imperial College London and The University of Hong Kong can be used to measure hormones that affect fertility, sexual development, and menstruation more quickly and cheaply than current methods.
The work, published in Nature Communications, took place in the Chemistry Department at Imperial College London and the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. It was tested in patients at Hammersmith Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
The researchers behind the trial used a novel biosensor linked to a robotic system, which they call Robotic APTamer-enabled Electrochemical Reader (RAPTER). It has the potential to transform the clinical care of patients with reproductive disorders by monitoring the hormone patterns of patients in real-time. In the study, the prototype RAPTER device was used to measure LH in the blood of patients taken every ten minutes to yield an immediate result.
The team believe that it could pave the way for more personalized medicine. They hope that the technology can be developed to give clinicians a clearer picture of LH pulsatility and suggest more effective treatments based on an individual's needs.
"Reproductive health issues are common amongst women in the UK and around the world,” Waljit Dhillo, one of the lead authors and NIHR Research Professor in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Imperial College London, said in a press release. “Diagnosis of some of these conditions can be lengthy resulting in delays to treatment. Reproductive health issues can also impact on women's mental and physical wellbeing. There is a clear need for new and better ways to diagnose these conditions more quickly. Our technology will be able to give clinicians a faster and more accurate diagnosis of hormone pulsatility that affects reproductive health, which could lead to better and more targeted treatments for women."
In the study, which took place between 2015 and 2019, researchers used the RAPTER to measure LH pulse patterns from 441 blood samples of women who either had normal reproductive function, were menopausal, or had hypothalamic amenorrhea, a condition where a woman's period stops. The large-scale device then gave an immediate reading.
Working with researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter, the team then used a mathematical method called the Bayesian Spectrum Analysis (BSA) to give an overall score of LH pulse levels. The results were compared with current tests to measure LH levels.
The RAPTER platform was able to detect changes in LH pulse patterns in patients with reproductive disorders. It was also able to distinguish between different patient cohorts for the first time using this new technology. For example, women with menopause have high LH levels compared to healthy fertile women with normal LH levels, or women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea who have low LH levels. Unlike current methods, the test is low-cost and can provide results instantly.
The team will now work on refining the technology to create a smaller sensor similar to a glucose monitoring device that can be used to continuously track changes to LH levels of patients in the clinic or remotely and could be available in the next three to five years.