![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/urine-test-839302302.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCANCER could soon be self-diagnosed with a simple urine test.<\/p>\n
Researchers have created a new nanoparticle sensor, which works much the same as a pregnancy test, to quickly and cheaply spot the killer disease. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The sensors could even be used to distinguish between different types of cancer and evaluate whether tumours are recurring after treatment.<\/p>\n
The nanoparticles are designed to search out tumours and emit DNA sequences when they do, which are then detectable in urine.<\/p>\n
Analysis of these DNA 'barcodes' could reveal details of a patient's tumour.<\/p>\n
Initial tests in mice demonstrated sensors could be used to detect the activity of five different enzymes expressed in tumours, and further clinical trials in humans are in the offing.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/crop-23568407.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/newspress-collage-23557773-1692460769666.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Aiming to make their test as cost-efficient and easily accessible as possible, engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US designed it to be performed on a strip of paper – similar to a pregnancy or lateral flow Covid test.<\/p>\n
Dr Sangeeta Bhatia, a biological engineer and a professor at MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), said: "We are trying to innovate in a context of making technology available to low and middle-resource settings.<\/p>\n
"Putting this diagnostic on paper is part of our goal of democratising diagnostics and creating inexpensive technologies that can give you a fast answer at the point of care."<\/p>\n
For several years, Dr Bhatia's lab has been developing 'synthetic biomarkers' which could be used to diagnose cancer.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n This latest project builds on previous work in detecting the biomarkers of the illness, such as proteins circulating around tumour cells in patients' blood samples.<\/p>\n But these naturally-occurring biomarkers are so rare – especially during the early stages of cancer – that they're nearly impossible to find.<\/p>\n However, synthetic biomarkers can be used to amplify these small-scale changes occurring within small tumours.<\/p>\n In her previous work, Dr Bhatia created nanoparticles which can detect the activity of enzymes called 'proteases' – which help cancer cells escape their original locations or settle in new ones.<\/p>\n These nanoparticles are coated with peptides that are split by different proteases and, once released into the bloodstream, these peptides can then be concentrated and more easily detected in a urine sample.<\/p>\n The original peptide biomarkers were designed to be detected based on small variations in their masses, using a mass spectrometer – but this kind of equipment is likely not to be available in lower-resource settings.<\/p>\n So researchers instead developed sensors which can be analysed more easily and affordably using DNA barcodes read using a specially-designed technology called 'CRISPR'.<\/p>\n The research team additionally had to use a chemical modification to protect the circulating DNA reporter barcodes from being broken down whilst travelling in the blood.<\/p>\n Each DNA barcode is attached to a nanoparticle by a linker that can be severed by a specific protease.<\/p>\n If that protease is present, the DNA molecule is released and free to circulate, eventually ending up in the urine.<\/p>\n Once the sensors are secreted in the urine, the sample can be analysed using a paper strip which recognises a reporter activated by a CRISPR enzyme.<\/p>\n When a particular DNA barcode is present in the sample, Cas12a amplifies the signal so that it is seen as a dark strip on a paper test.<\/p>\n The particles can be designed to carry many different DNA barcodes, each of which detects a different type of protease activity, which allows for 'multiplexed' sensing.<\/p>\n Using a larger number of sensors provides a boost in both sensitivity and specificity, allowing the test to more easily distinguish between tumour types.<\/p>\n In recent tests with mice, the researchers demonstrated a panel of five DNA barcodes could accurately distinguish tumours which first arose in the lungs from those formed by colorectal cancer cells that had metastasised to the lungs.<\/p>\n Liangliang Hao, a former MIT research scientist who is now an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University and lead author of the study, said: "Our goal here is to build up disease signatures and to see whether we can use these barcoded panels not only to read out a disease but also to classify a disease or distinguish different cancer types."<\/p>\n For future human use, the researchers expect that they may need to use more than five barcodes as they did in the mice, due to the variety in patients' tumours.<\/p>\n Towards this end, the researchers teamed up with scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to create a microfluidic chip which can be used to read up to 46 different barcodes from just one sample.<\/p>\n This kind of testing could be used not only for detecting cancer but also for measuring how well a patient's tumour responds to treatment and whether it has recurred after treatment.<\/p>\n The researchers are now working on further developing the particles with the goal of testing them in humans.<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nThe 5 earliest signs of skin cancer – as Chris Evans reveals diagnosis<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/crop-23567630.jpg\")
<\/picture>\nSupermarket & NHS team up to make change to undies – it could be a lifesaver<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/TM-comp-Katie-Morley-1.jpg\")
<\/picture>\nOur boy is battling dementia aged 3 – we are making most of time he has left<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/RF-COMP-HEALTH-FOODS.jpg\")
<\/picture>\nThe surprising foods that are making you fart – and there's not a veggie in sight<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n
'FAST ANSWERS'<\/h2>\n
Read More on The Sun<\/span><\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/jb-evanscancer-comp.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRadio legend Chris Evans, 57, reveals he’s been diagnosed with cancer<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OP_LY_St-Andrews-rd-Tidworth-Wilts.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBoy, 11, dies after \u2018incident\u2019 at skate park leaving locals devastated<\/h3>\n