The new tool will allow in the near future to diagnose it in three hours at a cost of 50 euros per sample
Scientists from the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) of Barcelona have developed a new tool that makes it possible to use transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) molecules as biomarkers for diagnose cancers and do it in the near future less than three hours and at a cost of less than 50 euros per sample.
The scientists, who publish their work this Thursday in the journal ‘Nature Biotechnology’have succeeded for the first time in developing a method to measure the abundance and modifications of tRNA in a simple and cheap way, with promising applications to diagnose and predict diseases, and that it is also a non-invasive test and has high sensitivity and specificity.
The method has been developed by the Eva Novoa’s research group at the CRG in Barcelonaand, with financing from the Spanish Association Against Cancerare now using the method as the basis for developing a new kit and platform that will be able to determine whether a biological sample is cancerous and predict its malignancy in less than three hours and at the aforementioned cost.
As Novoa explained, when transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) molecules are incorrectly modified, they produce defective or incomplete proteins, which is associated with various human diseases, including neurodegenerative, metabolic and cancer.
disease prognosis
“tRNAs are molecules that contain a lot of information, with enormous potential for the diagnosis and prognosis of diseases and until now they have not been exploited due to the lack of methods that can capture this information in a quantitative and cost-effective way”, according to the researcher, which gives as an example that some types of cancer are difficult to diagnose because their symptoms are not specific and They can be confused with other conditions.
“Being able to isolate tRNA molecules from blood samples and quantify their modifications can help diagnose cancers.” without using imaging tests or invasive biopsies. In addition, the type of tRNA modifications can change depending on the disease state, providing valuable information,” added Novoa.
Current methods for measuring tRNA molecules generally involve techniques such as sequencing state-of-the-art or mass spectrometry, with limitations in diagnosing because they cannot detect the modifications or are unable to identify where they are in the tRNA molecule.
This new method, called Nano-tRNAseq, according to the CRG scientists, can measure both abundance and modifications of tRNA molecules in a single step and is based on nanopore sequencing, a technology that can sequence RNA molecules directly by passing them through a small pore and detect changes in the electrical current that is generated as each nucleotide passes through the pore.
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“Before we relied on two separate methods that are less informative, would take weeks and cost thousands of euros to get results. Nano-tRNAseq is much cheaper, and we can have results in a couple of days. In the near future, it will be in a few hours “, assured the CRG researcher Morghan Lucas.
Another advantage is that nanopore sequencing machines for using Nano-tRNAseq are small, lightweight, and can be powered by a laptop or external battery, making them easy to transport and use in the field or in the clinic.