Engineers have developed a test to detect disease-related compounds in a patient’s breath. The new test could provide a faster way to diagnose pneumonia and other lung conditions. Rather than sit for a chest x-ray or wait hours for a lab result, a patient may one day take a breath test and get a diagnosis within minutes.
The new breath test is a portable, chip-scale sensor that traps and detects synthetic compounds, or biomarkers, of disease, which are initially attached to inhalable nanoparticles. The biomarkers serve as tiny tags that can only be unlocked and detached from the nanoparticle by a very particular key, such as a disease-related enzyme.
The idea is that a person would first breathe in the nanoparticles, similar to inhaling asthma medicine. If the person is healthy, the nanoparticles would eventually circulate out of the body intact. If a disease such as pneumonia is present, however, enzymes produced as a result of the infection would snip off the nanoparticles’ biomarkers. These untethered biomarkers would be exhaled and measured, confirming the presence of the disease.
The researchers plan to incorporate the new sensor into a handheld instrument that could be used in clinical or at-home settings to quickly diagnose pneumonia and other diseases.
