IIT Madras-led Team Develops New Biosensor to Test Pregnant Women for Pre-eclampsia

A multi-institute research team led by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has developed a new biosensor platform to test pregnant women for pre-eclampsia. 

The team has worked together to create a Point-of-Care (PoC) testing method using fibre optic sensor technology, offering a potential alternative to existing testing methods. 

What is Pre-eclampsia? 

Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a serious and life-threatening condition that can develop during pregnancy, affecting many pregnant women and newborns globally. Early, fast, and affordable screening for this condition is crucial to ensure timely treatment and reduce both maternal and neonatal health risks, including morbidity and mortality. 

How to Detect Pre-eclampsia? 

The usual method to detect pre-eclampsia is time-consuming, requiring huge infrastructure and trained personnel, which makes this test mostly inaccessible to remote areas and resource-limited settings. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an easily accessible, point-of-care testing device with ‘3S’ features (Sensitivity, Specificity and Speed) for the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia. 

To detect pre-eclampsia, tests using ‘PlGF’ biomarker are widely in use. This is because this biomarker peaks at 28 to 32 weeks in normal pregnancy, but in the case of women with pre-eclampsia, it decreases by 2 to 3 times after 28 weeks of pregnancy. 

IIT Madras-led Multi-Institute Research Team Develop New Biosensor Platform 

The Research Team comprised Prof. V.V. Raghavendra Sai and Dr. Ratan Kumar Chaudhary, Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering, IIT Madras, Dr. Narayanan Madaboosi, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Madras, Dr. Jitendra Satija, Centre for Nanobiotechnology, Vellore Institute of Technology, Dr. Balaji Nandagopal and Dr. Ramprasad Srinivasan, Sri Sakthi Amma Institute of Biomedical Research, Sri Narayani Hospital & Research Centre, Vellore.  

The POF sensor probes developed by this Research Team could measure PlGF within 30 minutes using the P-FAB strategy. The clinical sample testing confirmed the accuracy, reliability, specificity, and sensitivity of the P-FAB-based POF sensor platform, thereby paving the way for cost-effective technology for PlGF detection and its potential for pre-eclampsia diagnosis. 

Affordable Biosensor for Early Pre-eclampsia Detection: 

The research team chose an ultrasensitive plasmonic fibre optic absorbance biosensor (P-FAB) platform to detect PlGF in pregnant women. Traditionally, this technology uses glass optical fibres (GOF), which are expensive, fragile, and require complicated, precise fabrication steps. To overcome these challenges, the team used polymeric optical fibres (POF) as a more cost-effective and durable alternative. 

POFs are easy to handle, robust, and flexible. However, the surface of the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) material is chemically inert, which results in poor antibody surface density. To address this, the team used a generation-4 poly(amidoamine) (G4-PAMAM) dendrimer. This dendrimer is hyperbranched, uniform, and globular, with a three-dimensional structure, making it highly suitable for the task. 

This is the first time that PAMAM dendrimer-based strategies have been applied to POF-based biosensing. The POF sensor probe using the P-FAB strategy shows great potential for on-site, cost-effective, and user-friendly pre-eclampsia diagnosis. This method could help reduce the global burden of mortality and morbidity caused by pre-eclampsia. 

(Information Credit: Official Press Release, IIT Madras)

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