A research conducted by the Institute of Applied Physics “Nello Carrara” of the National Research Council (IFAC-CNR) in collaboration with the Universities of Jinan, China and Harvard, USA led to a scientific discovery that may pave the way to a new approach in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease. As the worldwide population ages, this disorder is increasing dramatically as the most common dementia in the elderly.
The international team of researchers have developed a multi-channel microfluidic-based plasmonic fibre-optic biosensing platform that could help achieve a rapid and accurate early diagnosis by detecting hallmarks such as amyloid beta (Aβ42). In particular, the platform will be able to simultaneously detect and discriminate clinical biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease being based on a gold-coated, highly-tilted fibre Bragg grating (TFBG), coated and a custom-developed microfluidics. The integration of the TFBG sensor with multi-channel microfluidics of the platform enables simultaneous, real-time detection of multiple biomarkers and determination of critical kinetic parameters, to differentiate between multiple clinical biomarkers.
In-situ detection and in-parallel discrimination of different forms of beta amyloid have been successfully demonstrated by using animal samples in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with one order of magnitude below the clinical cut-off level in AD early onset.
Therefore, with the advantages of multi-parameter, low consumption, and highly sensitive and accurate detection, the biophotonic platform resulting from the collaboration of this international research team represents a highly valid tool for the diagnosis of diseases at early stage.
