A team of South Korean researchers has made a breakthrough in nanotechnology, developing a method to track brain disease progression through simple blood tests, potentially eliminating the need for repeated imaging scans.
Seoul Asan Medical Center announced on Tuesday that Professor Lee Eun-jae from the Department of Neurology, Dr. Kim Jin-hee from the Biomedical Research Institute, Professor Shin Yong from Yonsei University’s Department of Bioengineering, and researchers Lee Hyo-joo and Noh Yeon-jeong have recently achieved these groundbreaking results.
Most brain disorders worsen over time, and damaged neurons rarely recover, underscoring the critical importance of early diagnosis and ongoing monitoring of disease activity.
However, brain tissue sampling is challenging, and imaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have limitations in precisely tracking subtle disease changes.
To address this, the research team developed a peptide imprinting nanocomposite (EPIN) that accurately identifies target molecules by mimicking specific protein structures.
This innovative technology is designed to recognize astrocyte surface proteins, enabling the selective isolation of astrocyte-derived extracellular vesicles from blood samples in just 40 minutes.
The team then conducted a two-phase clinical validation using 147 serum samples from a hospital biobank.
The study included samples from patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, as well as healthy control subjects.
Analysis using the nanocomposite technology revealed higher levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an indicator of astrocyte damage, in patients experiencing recurrent neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder compared to those in remission.
Moreover, characteristic molecular signals associated with relapse were observed in samples from patients with other neurological conditions, including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
Professor Lee Eun-jae emphasized that this research opens up the possibility of monitoring brain changes without the need for repeated imaging tests.
He added that this technology could potentially revolutionize treatment response prediction and personalized therapy development. It plans to conduct further validation to explore its clinical applications.
This study, supported by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and the National Research Foundation of Korea, was recently published in the prestigious international journal Nano Today, which has an impact factor of 10.9.