Rapid test identifies key driver of severe asthma

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Canadian researchers have developed a simple, rapid test that can identify the presence of a key driver of severe asthma. Researchers are preparing a clinical trial of the new test, which is the next step in bringing it to market.

The study was a collaboration between researchers at McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, both of Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada. Under the direction of John Brennan, director of McMaster’s Biointerfaces Institute, and Parameswaran Nair, a respirologist at the St. Joseph’s-based Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, the test tracks protein signatures quickly and accurately by identifying white blood cells,  known as eosinophils, even when they are present in complex biological samples such as sputum.

“This is what our collaboration set out to achieve,” said Brennan, one of two corresponding authors of a new paper in the prestigious German chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie. “This test and others like it can have the kind of lasting, meaningful impact that will improve or even save many lives.”

Having access to quick and reliable information about the presence of eosinophils can guide physicians in making important decisions about patient care. The test looks like a COVID-19 home test, which makes it readily adaptable to mass manufacturing once it is approved for clinical use.

To create the new test, the researchers developed and deployed a protein-targeting element known as a DNAzyme and modified it for use in the rapid test. First isolated in 1994, DNAzymes have primarily been generated for detection of metals or bacterial targets. Until now, no one had succeeded in using DNAzymes to target specific protein markers in any context. 

Now that the team has overcome this obstacle, Brennan believes the new test platform could be adapted to identify any material of biological origin by detecting its protein signature. The rapid test is the outcome of more than a decade of collaboration between Brennan and Nair.

“Previous research at the Firestone Institute, led by the late professor Freddy Hargreave, had pioneered another technique to enumerate eosinophils in sputum to guide asthma treatment,” said Nair. “However, this method is cumbersome and time-consuming, and therefore is not widely available to patients. This new approach is a huge advancement to make the technique more widely applicable.”

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