Description du projet
Une surveillance personnalisée des taux de vitamine B6
Le rôle de la vitamine B6 dans l’organisme humain est essentiel. Une carence peut entraîner de graves problèmes de santé. De fait, la carence en B6 chez les personnes âgées, les alcooliques et les diabétiques est liée aux maladies cardiovasculaires, au cancer et aux accidents vasculaires cérébraux. Les systèmes existants de surveillance des taux de vitamine B6 ne sont ni rapides ni fiables. Ils nécessitent également l’intervention d’un médecin, ainsi que d’un laboratoire, ce qui augmente les coûts et le temps de diagnostic. Le projet B6VitaStat, financé par l’UE, propose un dispositif facile à utiliser offrant une technique fiable et peu coûteuse qui surveille en permanence les taux de vitamine B6 dans les catégories de patients à risque. L’appareil innovant offre un diagnostic personnalisé des taux de vitamine B6 et est applicable dans tout type d’environnement, y compris les pays moins développés.
Objectif
Vitamin B6 is an essential nutrient and part of a well-balanced diet. However, B6 deficiency is often observed in elderly people, diabetes patients and alcoholics and associated with higher rates of cardiovascular disease, stroke and cancer. All these risk populations need a stringent and continuous monitoring of B6 levels. At present B6 detection systems suffer from limited speed, scope, convenience and reliability. These tests require a medical doctor as well as external laboratories with expensive and specialized equipment for analysis increasing the overall costs. We here develop a customized assay for vitamin B6 detection with a desired application as reliable, cheap and easy-to-use point-of-care device. This assay system, termed B6VitaStat, is based on the direct monitoring of cofactor binding into diverse enzyme active sites which will be performed in erythrocytes drawn from blood. Key to B6VitaStat is a tailored probe which mimics the structure of the cofactor. This probe is equipped with a recognition tag allowing to visualize binding to B6-dependent enzymes. The less B6 is bound, the stronger the signal, the higher the overall deficiency. This principle will be incorporated in an easy-to-use device that is based on an antibody printed microarray hallmarked by its cheap and reproducible production. The robust array can be used world-wide including developing countries with less pronounced medical infrastructure. The B6VitaStat team combines complementary expertise including chemistry, engineering and entrepreneurship, which will provide a basis for the envisioned commercialization. Given that B6VitaStat will be the first device of this class we estimate a significant cost reduction compared to current clinical procedures. Overall, we aim to introduce a new device for constant monitoring B6 vitamin status in risk patients and provide a cheap, easy-to-use and reliable method suited for all kinds of applications including those in less-developed countries.
Champ scientifique
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineendocrinologydiabetes
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinecardiologycardiovascular diseases
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologystroke
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-POC-LS - ERC Proof of Concept Lump Sum PilotInstitution d’accueil
80333 Muenchen
Allemagne