Inhalable point-of-care urinary diagnostic platform

“We [at the Koch Institute, MIT] designed a needleless and imaging-free platform, termed PATROL (point-of-care aerosolizable nanosensors with tumor-responsive oligonucleotide barcodes), to reduce resource disparities for early detection of lung cancer. PATROL formulates a set of DNA-barcoded, activity-based nanosensors (ABNs) into an inhalable format. Lung cancer–associated proteases selectively cleave the ABNs, releasing synthetic DNA reporters that are eventually excreted via the urine. The urinary signatures of barcoded nanosensors are quantified within 20 min at room temperature using a multiplexable paper-based lateral flow assay. PATROL detects early-stage tumors in an autochthonous lung adenocarcinoma mouse model with high sensitivity and specificity.”  MORE

Image Credit: Science