Smartphone sensing platform provides early warning for lung cancer and ketosis/diabetes

Although many diseases have no obvious symptoms in the early diagnosis, it’s proved that human body would defend itself through the immune system in the early stage of disease. Corresponding signals, such as sweat, urine, tears, blood, exhaled breath, are usually sent out for early warning.

Recently, a new invention by Prof. JIANG Changlong's research team from the Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, realized visual detection analysis for lung cancer and ketosis/diabetes via different testing probes.

The team designed and prepared two high-efficiency organic ratio fluorescent nanoprobes, and realized the detection of biomarkers in exhaled breath by combining with the color recognizer of the smartphone.

A portable smart phone platform based on a single-particle dual-emission ratio fluorescent probe they designed realized the visual detection of isopropanol in exhaled breath to achieve the purpose of early warning of lung cancer risk.

Another fluorescent sensor platform designed by them effectively captured acetone in blood and exhaled breath and warn ketosis/diabetes.

Researchers developed corresponding ratio fluorescent probes to identify acetone and isopropanol, and used the 3D printing technology and a smartphone APP (color recognizer) to complete the visualization, on-site and semi-quantitative detection of biomarkers. Through the ratio fluorescence strategy, two different colors of fluorescence probe are mixed at an appropriate ratio. When the biomarker is present, one type of fluorescence is quenched while the internal standard fluorescence remains unchanged, so that it can present a clear color under a UV lamp irradiation. Using a smart phone to recognize the color RGB value of the fluorescent probe solution can realize the visualization, real-time and semi-quantitative detection of the target analyte. This ratio probe is prepared by carbon dots with low toxicity, high luminous efficiency and organic fluorescent materials with a wide luminous color range, easy modification of the structure, and good tunability. It has a lower detection limit for biomarkers, which can realize early warning of human health. Combined with the fluorescence sensing platform prepared by the smart phone, it can perform on-site, fast, semi-quantitative, and visual detection.

The related results have been published in Analytical Chemistry as cover story and Microchimica Acta.

The two designed methods provide a convenient way and expected to expand the application of potential volatile biomarker research for preliminary monitoring and clinical diagnosis.