A new diagnostic device that uses blood tests to understand messages in the brain could revolutionize treatment for one of Australia’s deadliest cancers, University of Queensland doctors say.
The device, called a phenotyping chip, reads how the aggressive brain tumor glioblastoma responds to treatment, potentially eliminating the need for invasive procedures and improving survival rates.
Dr Richard Robb and Dr Jen Chan from UQ’s Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology call this a ‘window into the brain’, and non-invasive blood samples are all that is needed to obtain ‘quick and accurate information’ about cancer.
“What we’re trying to do is develop a blood test that reflects what’s going on biologically in the brain in real time…to really understand whether a treatment is working or not,” Robb said.
Robb’s background is studying how cells communicate, and this is how devices work.
“I’m working on something called extracellular vesicles. You can basically think of these as text messages sent by cells,” he said.
“They’re small, but they carry a lot of meaningful information about what’s going on inside the cell, for example in the brain.”
The chip works by testing a small blood sample and capturing messenger cells (extracellular vesicles) that originate from glioblastoma tumor tissue.
“These particles cross the blood-brain barrier, which is packed with information about the disease. With our sensitive equipment, we can pick them up and interrogate them,” Zhang said.
Approximately 1,640 people died from Brian’s cancer last year, and more than 2,000 new cases were recorded.
Glioblastoma is the most common brain tumor in Australia and is considered to be particularly deadly due to its delicate location, aggressive growth and difficulty in accurate treatment monitoring.
“So far, there has been little success in clinical trials of new experimental glioblastoma treatments,” Robb said.
“Part of the reason is that there’s no way to tell if a treatment is working as expected at the time without drilling into someone’s head.”
Although the device does not replace the need for some invasive procedures, such as MRI scans and biopsies to diagnose tumors, it has the potential to improve outcomes, especially for patients in remote and rural areas.
“Even if an MRI scan shows changes, it may be unclear whether the tumor is growing or whether the brain is simply responding to treatment,” Robb says.
“That uncertainty can be very stressful for patients and families, and in some cases, the only final option is to undergo another brain biopsy, which is risky and cannot be performed frequently.”
The device has been tested on more than 40 brain tumor patients and will be introduced into clinical trials with support.
Robb hopes that in the future it will be used to uncover treatments for other neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and motor neuron disease.
“If we can capture and analyze the right extracellular vesicles in a patient’s blood, we can gain new information about the mechanisms of development and progression of a wide range of brain diseases.
“Glioblastoma is really just the beginning of this technology.”
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