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The Miraculous Microprobe

Just the size of a home sewing needle, the antibody-based immunosensor, or microprobe, has the ability to change medical and animal science. It can be placed into the bloodstream of a human or an animal to give on-line, real-time biochemical signals from the body for instant reading and diagnosis.

The "next generation" of analytical medical tools has received a boost by the addition of the needle-shaped probe, developed by Dr Christian Cook of HortResearch's Technology Development Group at Ruakura.

The immunosensor sits in a vein, and within it are antibodies that are fixed onto an electrode. These antibodies "grab hold" of whatever needs to measured, such as bacteria. They bind tightly to their targets and the process that eventuates is an electrical signal out of the probe to a monitor. The beauty of this system is that the antibodies can be target-specific, which is where the probe gets its diagnostic ability.

The concept is simple, the application is simple, but the technology to implement it is more complicated.

Internationally known as a fundamental physiologist, Cook is working at the forefront of a new area of science, and his need to measure stress factors in animals is what led him to develop the probe. He says the probe can be used in the biomedical field to provide rapid accurate diagnosis and real-time monitoring of a disease, and reactions to treatment.

The current standard procedure in hospitals is to draw off a blood sample, take it to the lab, do your diagnosis. By the time the result is ready two or even three days later, the patient has changed considerably.

"With this technique, the diagnosis is accurate and it is possible to know instantly if the treatment is working," Cook says.

Work began on the probe about two years ago and when it started producing results about a year later, he realised it also had potential for human medical treatment.

"The probe could sit quite happily in a catheter, or alternatively it could be implanted directly into a blood vessel which would be quite comfortable for the patient. With animals it would be implanted directly into a vein," he says.

Cook says he sees the initial up-take of this technology being at a hospital level -- for example, during surgery for real-time feedback on what is happening in the body and the reaction to anaesthetics and to the stress of surgery itself, or in an intensive care situation the probe could provide "on-line" answers, measure what bacteria are doing in the body and go on to instantly measure the effectiveness of any treatment.

Successful animal and human tests have already been conducted, and the next level of testing will be a clinical trial. A paper written by Cook about the probe appeared recently in the international journal Nature Biotechnology and has attracted considerable interest from the US. The Rockefeller University, Stanford University, and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, all want to use the probe.

However the Technology Development group is hoping to have a New Zealand manufacturer produce and market niche products built around the probe. Actronic NZ have shown a strong interest in developing a medical application and another New Zealand organisation is interested in developing an animal health application.

"We suspect there are many examples of how this technology, which is patented and is internationally unique, can be used and extended," Cook says.

One example would be instant feedback for sports people during training, right through to whether they are eating the right food. It could be used to measure stress levels in people such as airline pilots where stress needs to be kept under control, or for shift work where people who adapt poorly to altered hours have a greater risk of an accident. It is anticipated that a non-invasive test such as detecting hormone levels in saliva would be used for this.

The Technology Development Group plans to use the probe to advance their research in measuring animal stress levels as they now have the ability to obtain real-time data on brain function, physiological function and metabolism in living animals.