Descrizione del progetto
Un test ormonale sensibile utile per la gestione dell’obesità
L’obesità colpisce più del 10 % degli individui in tutto il mondo, ma non esistono trattamenti specifici. Servono quindi urgentemente nuovi biomarcatori diagnostici e prognostici. Il progetto DNAsensPROT, finanziato dall’UE, ha sviluppato un metodo basato sugli aptameri del DNA per la misurazione quantitativa delle proteine nei campioni biologici. L’idea è di applicare questo approccio per la misurazione della leptina, un ormone intestinale che regola l’appetito e il peso e i cui livelli sono proporzionali alla massa grassa del corpo. L’attuazione di questo metodo in scenari di cura decentrati si traduce in un test ultrasensibile per la diagnosi dei problemi di controllo dell’appetito, come quelli riscontrabili nell’obesità e nell’anoressia.
Obiettivo
The life expectancy in both EU and US fell in 2015. A third of premature deaths could be preventable and large part is due to obesity – a major risk factor for many chronic diseases including diabetes. Worldwide about 40% of adults are overweight and 13% obese. Regulation of food metabolism is becoming one of the main issues relevant to human health today. Obesity is preventable, however there are no currently available non-invasive and cost-effective obesity treatments, pointing to the need of novel diagnostic and prognostic tests. Leptin, a gut-hormone protein, has been shown to be crucial in regulating appetite and weight. Its concentration is proportional to the body fat mass, and changes at a greater rate compared to weight loss, therefore it can be used as a key measure of diet efficiency. Strong correlation between plasma and salivary leptin levels allows monitoring leptin in saliva, and provides point-of-care (PoC) personalised insight into the success of individual weight loss programs.
During our ERC Synergy Grant we have developed an aptamer based approach to perform quantitative detection of protein molecules using nucleic acid amplification to overcome the complexities of current methods to enable PoC detection. The key idea (patent pending) is to amplify and quantify DNA displaced from DNA-aptamer complexes by Leptin molecules with real-time Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification. We will use an Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistor lab-on chip arrays. Now we need funds to further develop this technology and create a PoC platform to provide linear label-free ultrasensitive protein detection, reducing complexity, time-to-result and cost of the assay. Furthermore, the development of this novel molecular method will enable quantification of a broader number of protein targets and create one of the most sensitive PoC techniques for protein quantification, with applications far beyond appetite control (obesity, anorexia etc) management.
Campo scientifico
CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP.
CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesnucleic acids
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineendocrinologydiabetes
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutritionobesity
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantIstituzione ospitante
SW7 2AZ LONDON
Regno Unito