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Joined: Mar 26, 2005 Posts: 590 Location: Northamptonshire, England.
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:52 am Post subject: Quick test for MS
This could be an interesting development: one of the big problems with MS has been a suspicion that the disease process begins years or even decades before symptoms show. If that is what happens, we could be missing crucial points where intervention might be possible, or which at least might give us a better understanding.
If this new test becomes commonplace it might become possible to check apparently healthy people, and therefore discover the true definition of, " the early stages":
Quote:
Testing for diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis could soon be as simple as using a pregnancy testing kit.
A team led by scientists at the University of Leeds has developed a biosensor technology that uses antibodies to detect biomarkers - molecules in the human body which are often a marker for disease - much faster than current testing methods.
The technology could be used in doctors' surgeries for more accurate referral to consultants, and in hospitals for rapid diagnosis. Tests have shown that the biosensors can detect a wide range of analytes (substances being measured), including biomarkers present in prostate and ovarian cancer, stroke, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and fungal infections. The team also believes that the biosensors are versatile enough to test for diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV.
The technology was developed through a European collaboration of researchers and commercial partners in a 2.7 million Euro project called ELISHA. It features new techniques for attaching antibodies to innovative surfaces, and novel electronic measurement methods that need no reagents or labels.
ELISHA was co-ordinated by Dr Paul Millner from the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds, and managed by colleague Dr Tim Gibson. Says Dr Millner: "We believe this to be the next generation diagnostic testing. We can now detect almost any analyte faster, cheaper and more easily than the current accepted testing methodology."
Currently blood and urine are tested for disease markers using a method called ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay). Developed in the 1970s, the process takes an average of two hours to complete, is costly and can only be performed by highly trained staff.
The Leeds team are confident their new technology - which provides results in 15 minutes or less - could be developed into a small device the size of a mobile phone into which different sensor chips could be inserted, depending on the disease being tested for.
"We've designed simple instrumentation to make the biosensors easy to use and understand," says Dr Millner. "They'll work in a format similar to the glucose biosensor testing kits that diabetics currently use."
Professor Séamus Higson, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Biosciences, Cranfield Health, and one of the partners within the ELISHA programme, says: "The speed of response this technology offers will be of great benefit to early diagnosis and treatment of many diseases, and will permit testing in de-localised environments such as GP's surgeries."
A spinout company - ELISHA Systems Ltd - has been set up by Dr Gibson, commercial partners Uniscan Instruments Ltd and Technology Translators Ltd to bring the technology to market.
Says Dr Gibson: "The analytes used in our research only scratch the surface of the potential applications. We've also shown that it can be used in environmental applications, for example to test for herbicides or pesticides in water and antibiotics in milk."
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 3371 Location: Mid-Michigan
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:14 am Post subject: Re: Quick test for MS
Having ONE thing to identify MS specifically and with certainty would be SUCH a HUGE and hopeful aspect in MS research. FAR, FAR more important than identifying and understanding the human genome, this would signal the end of MS in fairly short order.
Bob
TwistedHelix wrote:
This could be an interesting development: one of the big problems with MS has been a suspicion that the disease process begins years or even decades before symptoms show. If that is what happens, we could be missing crucial points where intervention might be possible, or which at least might give us a better understanding.
If this new test becomes commonplace it might become possible to check apparently healthy people, and therefore discover the true definition of, " the early stages":
_________________ Wife diagnosed with MS in Feb. 2006 and is a participant in the Tovaxin IIb clinical trial.
Joined: Nov 24, 2007 Posts: 69 Location: South Germany
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:29 am Post subject:
Well, nice to know officially sooner. Now I know I have it I know I've had it - at least the symptoms tell me that - for ages.
On the other hand, how would it help?
As far as I can tell all the medications can do is treat the symptoms, so knowing you have MS before any symptoms have turned up will only make you depressed. Or have I got it wrong? _________________ Bibo ergo sum
although it wouldn't prevent / cure anything, a test that helps to reduce the long process of being diagnosed can only be a good thing and hopefully save people some stress!
Joined: Jul 28, 2005 Posts: 1269 Location: Sydney, Australia
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 4:31 am Post subject:
maybe its because I have had this for ten years, but I notice a trend towards treatments available, being best when performed earlier in the course of the disease, before permanent damage becomes too great.
Joined: Mar 26, 2005 Posts: 590 Location: Northamptonshire, England.
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 7:09 am Post subject:
I think it's a much wider issue than simply, "finding out sooner": there may well be processes happening in the body in the early stages which could be completely different from what happens later, when symptoms show, and which might be stopped in their tracks. Also, as Bob has repeatedly said, we only discover we have MS once we get symptoms, and we always refer to that as, "the early stages", but it's entirely possible that things have been going wrong inside our bodies decades before that time. It could be extremely valuable to discover what is happening in the real early phase, _________________ Dom
Joined: May 04, 2006 Posts: 3371 Location: Mid-Michigan
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:48 am Post subject:
It would be foolish to act as if something is conclusive until it's conclusively proven, but I think there are a couple of giveaways in this regard.
First is that any logical person has to realize that, from the beginning (the REAL beginning of MS and not the diagnosed beginning), plasticity does it's best to hide the effects of MS and stalls diagnosis.
Depending on disease aggressiveness and how much confidence a person has in the ability of plasticity, it might be considered that plasticity is capable of DRASTICALLY stalling MS diagnosis for years...decades, sometimes through an entire lifetime.
Second is that in recent years we've already seen strong early signs which are only going to intensify as higher resolution imaging is used, that neural damage upon MS diagnosis is much more intense and widespread than researchers had ever previously realized and which can't be explained away as resulting from true "early" disease.
It's always seemed ironic to me that in the 1940's and 1950's, as it became more and more obvious that clinical trials and submitting articles to peer review journals was a scientific advancement, also left the world of MS research with a faulty and archaic "knowledge base" which now can only be overridden by conclusive evidence. Obviously very seldom in those last 50 or 60 years has MS research accumulated evidence strong enough to overpower the old "incumbent" knowledge base, despite how misguided it might be/probably is.
This irony affects every aspect of MS research and plays a large part in keeping the "mysteries of MS' just that, mysteries.
Bob _________________ Wife diagnosed with MS in Feb. 2006 and is a participant in the Tovaxin IIb clinical trial.
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