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a red blood cell; Credit: St Jude
Children’s Research Hospital
Researchers say they have developed a diagnostic technique that can rapidly detect low levels of malaria infection through the skin.
The approach involves a low-powered laser that creates tiny vapor nanobubbles inside malaria-infected cells.
The bursting bubbles have a unique acoustic signature that allows for a sensitive diagnosis.
This method requires no dyes or diagnostic chemicals, and there is no need to draw blood.
A preclinical study published in PNAS showed that the method could detect a single malaria-infected cell among a million normal cells with 0 false-positive readings.
“Ours is the first through-the-skin method that’s been shown to rapidly and accurately detect malaria in seconds, without the use of blood sampling or reagents,” said lead investigator Dmitri Lapotko, PhD, of Rice University in Houston, Texas.
The transdermal diagnostic method takes advantage of the optical properties and nanosize of hemozoin, a nanoparticle produced by the malaria parasite inside a red blood cell. Hemozoin crystals are not found in normal red blood cells.
Dr Lapotko and his colleagues found that hemozoin absorbs the energy from a short laser pulse and creates a transient vapor nanobubble. This short-lived vapor nanobubble emerges around the hemozoin nanoparticle and is detected both acoustically and optically.
Acoustic detection of nanobubbles made it possible to detect malaria in whole blood and individual red blood cells infected with Plasmodium falciparum. The method also detected malaria infection as low as 0.00034% in mice infected with Plasmodium yoelii.
“The nanobubbles are generated on demand and only by hemozoin,” said study author Ekaterina Lukianova-Hleb, PhD, also of Rice University. “For this reason, we found that our tests never returned a false-positive result . . . .”
To determine the feasibility of this technique in humans, the researchers tested it on human ears.
The laser probe reliably detected capillaries through the skin, located the blood vessel in the ear in less than 10 seconds, and was reproducible in all 4 subjects studied. In addition, the method did not cause any discomfort or morphological damage to the ear skin.
Dr Lapotko said the first clinical trials of this technology are expected to begin in Houston soon.
He and his colleagues have also used nanobubble technology to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to cancer cells. 
a red blood cell; Credit: St Jude
Children’s Research Hospital
Researchers say they have developed a diagnostic technique that can rapidly detect low levels of malaria infection through the skin.
The approach involves a low-powered laser that creates tiny vapor nanobubbles inside malaria-infected cells.
The bursting bubbles have a unique acoustic signature that allows for a sensitive diagnosis.
This method requires no dyes or diagnostic chemicals, and there is no need to draw blood.
A preclinical study published in PNAS showed that the method could detect a single malaria-infected cell among a million normal cells with 0 false-positive readings.
“Ours is the first through-the-skin method that’s been shown to rapidly and accurately detect malaria in seconds, without the use of blood sampling or reagents,” said lead investigator Dmitri Lapotko, PhD, of Rice University in Houston, Texas.
The transdermal diagnostic method takes advantage of the optical properties and nanosize of hemozoin, a nanoparticle produced by the malaria parasite inside a red blood cell. Hemozoin crystals are not found in normal red blood cells.
Dr Lapotko and his colleagues found that hemozoin absorbs the energy from a short laser pulse and creates a transient vapor nanobubble. This short-lived vapor nanobubble emerges around the hemozoin nanoparticle and is detected both acoustically and optically.
Acoustic detection of nanobubbles made it possible to detect malaria in whole blood and individual red blood cells infected with Plasmodium falciparum. The method also detected malaria infection as low as 0.00034% in mice infected with Plasmodium yoelii.
“The nanobubbles are generated on demand and only by hemozoin,” said study author Ekaterina Lukianova-Hleb, PhD, also of Rice University. “For this reason, we found that our tests never returned a false-positive result . . . .”
To determine the feasibility of this technique in humans, the researchers tested it on human ears.
The laser probe reliably detected capillaries through the skin, located the blood vessel in the ear in less than 10 seconds, and was reproducible in all 4 subjects studied. In addition, the method did not cause any discomfort or morphological damage to the ear skin.
Dr Lapotko said the first clinical trials of this technology are expected to begin in Houston soon.
He and his colleagues have also used nanobubble technology to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to cancer cells.
a red blood cell; Credit: St Jude
Children’s Research Hospital
Researchers say they have developed a diagnostic technique that can rapidly detect low levels of malaria infection through the skin.
The approach involves a low-powered laser that creates tiny vapor nanobubbles inside malaria-infected cells.
The bursting bubbles have a unique acoustic signature that allows for a sensitive diagnosis.
This method requires no dyes or diagnostic chemicals, and there is no need to draw blood.
A preclinical study published in PNAS showed that the method could detect a single malaria-infected cell among a million normal cells with 0 false-positive readings.
“Ours is the first through-the-skin method that’s been shown to rapidly and accurately detect malaria in seconds, without the use of blood sampling or reagents,” said lead investigator Dmitri Lapotko, PhD, of Rice University in Houston, Texas.
The transdermal diagnostic method takes advantage of the optical properties and nanosize of hemozoin, a nanoparticle produced by the malaria parasite inside a red blood cell. Hemozoin crystals are not found in normal red blood cells.
Dr Lapotko and his colleagues found that hemozoin absorbs the energy from a short laser pulse and creates a transient vapor nanobubble. This short-lived vapor nanobubble emerges around the hemozoin nanoparticle and is detected both acoustically and optically.
Acoustic detection of nanobubbles made it possible to detect malaria in whole blood and individual red blood cells infected with Plasmodium falciparum. The method also detected malaria infection as low as 0.00034% in mice infected with Plasmodium yoelii.
“The nanobubbles are generated on demand and only by hemozoin,” said study author Ekaterina Lukianova-Hleb, PhD, also of Rice University. “For this reason, we found that our tests never returned a false-positive result . . . .”
To determine the feasibility of this technique in humans, the researchers tested it on human ears.
The laser probe reliably detected capillaries through the skin, located the blood vessel in the ear in less than 10 seconds, and was reproducible in all 4 subjects studied. In addition, the method did not cause any discomfort or morphological damage to the ear skin.
Dr Lapotko said the first clinical trials of this technology are expected to begin in Houston soon.
He and his colleagues have also used nanobubble technology to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to cancer cells.