Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in developed nations. Despite treatment advances, the death rate remains high because CVD tends to be clinically silent until serious complications arise. With increased screening, interventions could slow disease progression before a major event like a heart attack occurs, but available CVD tests aren’t suited to broad screening. Current tests are either expensive, slow, or lack specificity. In contrast, CardioSense is an inexpensive, handheld blood test for predictors of CVD. This technology could be incorporated into broad clinical screening to identify early stage CVD and slow disease progression.
Description
CardioSense is a handheld, multi-array biosensor that screens for cardiovascular risk by detecting FDA-approved cardiac markers in just a few drops of blood, similar to the function of a glucose tester. CardioSense screens for cardiac markers using aptamers, which are single-stranded nucleotide sequences that are synthesized to bind targets with high sensitivity and specificity. Two targets of interest for CVD are brain natriuretic peptide and Troponin-T, which are indicators of cardiac stress or injury. Aptamer binding is detected using an impedimetric device, allowing for a quick, simple, and cost-effective mode of detection compared with blood assays (e.g., ELISA) or imaging tests (e.g., CT) conducted in the hospital and diagnostic laboratories.
Applications
· Broad screening for CVD
· Rapidly diagnosing CVD in suspected emergency cases
· Capacity to adapt to other disease markers (e.g., detecting GFAP could diagnose traumatic brain injury or detecting Tau could diagnose Alzheimer’s)
Advantages
· Shelf-stable across various environments
· Highly specific
· Minimal batch-to-batch variation
· Handheld
· Requires only a few drops of blood
Invention Readiness
Optimization in the laboratory
IP Status
https://patents.google.com/patent/US11156609B2; https://patents.google.com/patent/US20210405038A1
