Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed cutting-edge technology that can successfully screen human blood for disease markers. This tool may lead to better diagnosis and understanding of some of today’s most pressing health conditions, including autoimmune diseases and Alzheimer’s disease.
“This study validates that the ‘antigen surrogate’ technology will indeed be a powerful tool for diagnostics,” says Thomas Kodadek, PhD, professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Cancer Biology and vice chairman of the Department of Chemistry at TSRI.
The study, published in the journal Chemistry & Biology, shows how the technology accurately identified human blood markers for neuromyelitis optica, a rare autoimmune disorder resembling multiple sclerosis that can result in blindness and paralysis. Following a similar study on mouse models, the work confirms that the technique is applicable to humans.
Many autoimmune diseases produce antibodies specific to that disease. Identifying these disease-specific antibodies among millions of other similar yet non-disease-specific antibodies in the blood, however, is searching for a needle in a haystack. Many current diagnostic methods detect disease-specific antibodies by using part of the virus, bacteria, or cellular component targeted by the antibody in a patient’s body, essentially “fishing” for the antibody, using its distinct target as bait. Many disease-specific antibodies and their targets are currently unidentified.
Kodadek and his colleagues sidestepped this conundrum by substituting these unknown antibody-binding targets with biologically unnatural molecules called “peptoids,” chain-like molecules tethered to tiny beads and extended “link by link” by the sequential addition of small chemical subunits. By using different subunits and randomizing their order, chemists can produce libraries of thousands, even millions, of different peptoids quickly and easily. Read the study summary, with figures.
