Low Cost DNA Based Breast Cancer Diagnostic Tests Developed By Indian Scientists

A revolutionary finding of Indian scientists working on breast cancer indicates that the newly developed high-precision DNA probes can be used for the fast and efficient diagnosis of breast cancer. The tests are low in cost and high in performance.

The researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, employed aptamers, often referred to as "magic bullets" of science, for the development of breast cancer diagnostic tests. These aptamer molecules bind biomolecules in a highly specific and stable manner. The researchers engineered them to specifically bind breast cancer biomarkers to indicate the presence or absence of cancerous cells in the breast region, Economic Times reported.

Arghya Sett, lead researcher of the project, informed that, "Our team has found an alternative way to detect breast cancer. We have synthesised a special type of aptamer which has high specificity towards estrogen receptor alpha positive breast carcinomas. The aptamer recognises and binds to the receptor even in minute quantities."

The study that was funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, was published in the Translational Research journal, Elsevier.

Zee News reported that the newly developed technology will supersede the presently used antibody-based diagnostic tools as "It is a low cost, less complex and rapid technology."

"It overcomes the drawback of conventional antibody based tests such as production cost, production time, batch to batch variation and inconsistent results that often lead to false positive estimations. The production cost for the alternative approach would be 10 to 20 times cheaper," Sett said.

More importantly, the detectors can be tailored synthetically so that it can bind with the target molecule. The scientists had to work hard to develop breast cancer receptor specific aptamers, which was a major challenge because of its inherent affinity to "attach to any molecule in the universe which has 3D shape and size".

No more sacrificing animals for antibody isolation. The conventional diagnostic tests are antibody-based and necessitate the scarification of animals to isolate the antibodies from their blood serum. However, aptamer-based tests may altogether abolish the need of animal sacrifice.

Utpal Bora, principal investigator of the project, informed that, "In future, aptamers have the real potential to substitute antibodies. It is a platform technology that has a vast potential and should be often exploited as to develop cost effective diagnostics for a plethora of diseases like cancer, systemic, metabolic and pathogenic disorders."