University Scientists Create Personal Electrochemical Analyzers

10:54, April 27, 2020

The device will determine glucose, cholesterol and antioxidant status of the body

Scientists of the Chemical-Technological Institute of Ural Federal University won a grant from the Russian Science Foundation. RSF supported a research project that will help solve the problems of a comprehensive pre-symptomatic diagnosis of socially significant diseases. Modern diagnostic laboratories use instrumental biochemical methods of analysis: enzyme immunoassay, a method based on a polymerase chain reaction, serological, as well as bacterial culture methods with colony counting.

“All these diagnostic procedures require a lot of time, material and labor costs, and are also purely laboratory, while the task is often to quickly identify the source of infection“ on the spot ”or make an accurate diagnosis directly“ at the patient’s bedside ”. The creation of portable means for express diagnostics, focused on personalized use outside the medical institution, will make it possible to substantially approach the solution of the above problems, ”said Alisa Kozitsina, director of the innovative center for chemical and pharmaceutical technologies.

Scientists plan to solve two main problems. The first is to synthesize and study the properties of complexes of electroactive metal cations (Ni2 +, Co2 + and others) and synthetic polymers containing fragments of 2,2’-bipyridine or its azanalogs. The second is a study of the characteristics of the course of immunochemical reactions in a thin-layer flow-through electrochemical cell using new, directionally bifunctional heterocyclic compounds of the azolopyrimidine and azolotriazine series conjugated directly with protein structures as tags.

“Based on the results, it is planned to develop a portable electrochemical analyzer that allows you to determine glucose, cholesterol and the antioxidant status of the body according to the results of the analysis of one drop of biological fluid, without the use of enzymes, as well as a thin-layer electrochemical immunochip for the enzyme-free determination of infectious agents and tumor markers," said Alisa Kozitsina .

Successful implementation of the project will lay the foundation for further research in the field of determining other important parameters of biological fluids using a modular portable diagnostic platform.

In the world today, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, infectious and oncological diseases are one of the leading causes of death. Therefore, the main task of healthcare is, on the one hand, the prevention of these diseases and the fight against factors that contribute to their development, and on the other hand, the conduct of early diagnosis for timely diagnosis.