Summary: Researchers have developed a portable “lab-on-a-chip” device that measures cortisol levels from saliva, offering an objective and rapid way to assess stress and mental health risk. The device includes a disposable saliva collector and a handheld reader that delivers results to a smartphone within minutes.
Unlike traditional questionnaires, which rely on self-reporting, this test provides clinicians with biochemical data to support timely mental health interventions. The technology also shows promise for detecting other health conditions, such as heart attacks, by measuring biomarkers like troponin in blood.
Key Facts:
- Rapid Mental Health Screening: The chip tests cortisol and DHEA from saliva, giving objective data on stress in minutes.
- Mobile and User-Friendly: Patients can self-test at home and share results with clinicians via smartphone.
- Beyond Stress: The same technology can test for cardiac biomarkers like troponin, aiding heart attack diagnosis.
Source: University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati engineers created a new device to help doctors diagnose depression and anxiety.
UC College of Engineering and Applied Science Distinguished Research Professor Chong Ahn and his students developed a “lab-on-a-chip” device that measures the stress hormone cortisol from a patient’s saliva.
Knowing if a patient has elevated stress hormones can provide useful diagnostic information even if patients do not report feelings of anxiety, stress or depression in a standard mental health questionnaire.
Mental health disorders affect more than 400 million people around the world. Stress disorders such as anxiety and depression are among the leading causes of disability worldwide. Prolonged cortisol elevation is linked to numerous mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety.
UC researchers created a lab-on-a-chip system to track a patient’s cortisol levels. It consists of a disposable collection device that a person puts in their mouth which is then inserted into a reader. The reader can transmit results in minutes to a portable analyzer and smartphone.
The study was published in the journal Biomedical Microdevices.
“Mental health care can be an urgent situation. And so these tests will help doctors make timely interventions,” Ahn said.
Patients can do the testing themselves and share results with doctors with a web app, he said.
Study co-author UC doctoral student Supreeth Setty is working on a related project for his dissertation that examines another hormone (dehydroepiandrosterone) that goes by the acronym DHEA. That hormone helps to counteract the effects of too much cortisol in the body.
Research has shown that high ratios of cortisol to DHEA are indicators of chronic stress associated with conditions such as depression and anxiety.
Setty said the tests provide clinicians with objective evidence to supplement traditional screenings such as the patient health questionnaire.
“Point-of-care testing is a practical way to make results available quickly for everyone,” he said.
Unlike mental health questionnaires that can be more subjective because they rely on a patient’s candor and self-awareness, the cortisol and DHEA tests are objective and can raise a red flag about a patient’s levels of stress, Setty said.
“The next step would be to collaborate with psychiatrists and conduct clinical trials to see if our platform works as expected,” Setty said.
UC doctoral graduate Vinitha Thiyagarajan Upaassana was the lead author of the study with Setty and co-author and UC doctoral student Heeyong Jang. The project was partially funded by UC’s Technology Accelerator Project.
UC researchers say their technique can be used to diagnose other health issues.
In particular, they examined troponin, a protein that gets released into the bloodstream when patients suffer damage to their hearts from conditions such as a heart attack. The amount of the protein released depends on how much damage the heart sustains.
High cardiac troponin levels in combination with symptoms such as chest pain can indicate a heart attack in progress.
In a paper published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, Jang, Setty and Ahn unveiled an innovative new device for a rapid and effective point-of-care biochemical test that measures troponin from a drop of blood.
“Once you survive a heart attack there is an increased probability of having another heart attack,” Jang said.
“We can monitor troponin in the blood on a daily basis and hopefully get valuable information. The test provides immediate results, which is important when a patient is in need of immediate care.”
About this depression and neurotech research news
Author: Michael Miller
Source: University of Cincinnati
Contact: Michael Miller – University of Cincinnati
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“On-site analysis of cortisol in saliva based on microchannel lateral flow assay on polymer lab-on-a-chip” by Chong Ahn et al. Biomedical Microdevices
Abstract
On-site analysis of cortisol in saliva based on microchannel lateral flow assay on polymer lab-on-a-chip
Unbound cortisol in saliva, detectable through non-invasive sampling, is widely recognized as a validated biomarker for the biochemical evaluation of common mental disorders such as chronic stress, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In this work, we report a novel polymer lab-on-a-chip (LOC) for microfluidic lateral flow assay (mLFA) with on-chip dried reagents for the detection of unbound cortisol in saliva using a competitive immunoassay protocol.
The new polymer microchannel lateral flow assay on lab-on-a-chip (mLFA-LOC), replicated using injection molding technology, are composed of sequentially connected microchannels for sample loading, detection antibody immobilization, flow delay, sensing spirals for test and control, and a capillary pump at the end.
The competitive immunoassay of cortisol can be autonomously performed through the microchannels after sample loading of the filtered saliva, and the fluorescence signals emitted from the sensing spirals are detected and quantified by a custom-designed, portable fluorescence analyzer developed in this work.
For the evaluation of cortisol assay, artificial saliva samples spiked with unbound cortisol were analyzed using mLFA-LOC and the portable analyzer.
The performed competitive assay of unbound cortisol showed a limit of detection (LoD) of 1.8 ng/mL and an inter-chip coefficient of variation (CV) of 4.0%, which covers the clinical range for on-site unbound salivary cortisol analysis.
The newly developed mLFA-LOC platform certainly works successfully for the rapid on-site sampling and analysis of salivary biomarkers.
