By Umashankar Mishra
New Delhi: Indian researchers have developed a technique which can potentially help in rapid detection of chronic kidney disease (CKD). It is a highly sensitive electro-chemical technique, which can be used to detect different stages of the disease.
The technique has been put together by researchers of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)’s New Delhi based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and Amity University, Rajasthan. It has been developed by modifying a multi-walled carbon nanotube electrode with capture protein papain via covalent immobilization. The binding of the probe to the electrode was confirmed by various microscopic and spectroscopic methods. Cystatin C, a CKD specific marker can bind to the capture molecule producing variations in the electronic transitions occurring through the surface modified electrode.
Dr Manali Datta, researcher of Amity University, who led the study, mentioned, “This technique could detect Cystatin C concentrations corresponding to baseline as well as different stages of CKD. Specificity of the sensor was tested against creatinine, albumin, and gliadin and was found to be highly specific for Cystatin C.”
“The sensor”, she explained, “was tested with spiked samples of urine and was found to give a good accuracy rate. It has been tested in varying pH levels and is able to detect as low as 6 microgram of CKD specific marker per liter of urine”.
