Portable Sensor May Lead to Earlier Detection of Asthma Attacks

Researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick have invented a portable, non-invasive sensor that can detect biomarkers in exhaled breath condensate and may one day give patients information about when an asthma attack is imminent.

Current methods of asthma monitoring include spirometry and testing for exhaled nitric oxide, but these options are expensive and often too unwieldy for easy portability.

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"Our vision is to develop a device that someone with asthma or another respiratory disease can wear around their neck or on their wrist and blow into it periodically to predict the onset of an asthma attack or other problems," said Mehdi Javanmard, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and coauthor of the study. "It advances the field of personalized and precision medicine."

Dr. Javanmard and colleagues developed a sensor that uses reduced graphene oxide to detect nitrite in exhaled breath condensate. Reduced graphene oxide was chosen because it resists corrosion yet still allows for highly sensitive electrochemical detection.

The researchers validated their sensor with 7 pre-characterized clinical samples of exhaled breath condensate with concentrations that ranged from 0.14 to 6.5 μM. Their sensor “exhibited high levels of precision in quantifying nitrite in the clinically relevant μM range,” the researchers stated.

Patients with asthma may be able to use a device that relies on this sensor to evaluate whether air pollutants or other environmental hazards are affecting them, and clinicians may be able to use such a device to assist in making treatment decisions and to assess whether anti-inflammatory drugs are effective.

“This enzyme-free and label-free method of detecting biomarkers in exhaled breath condensate can pave the way for the development of portable breath analyzers for diagnosing and managing changes in respiratory inflammation and disease,” the study’s authors wrote.

—Lauren LeBano

References

Gholizadeh A, Voiry D, Weisel C, et al. Toward point-of-care management of chronic respiratory conditions: Electrochemical sensing of nitrite content in exhaled breath condensate using reduced graphene oxide. Microsyst Nanoeng. 17022 (2017).doi:10.1038/micronano.2017.22.

Bates T. Graphene-Based Sensor Could Improve Evaluation, Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma [press release]. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University; 22 May 2017.