Chemists develop low-cost, at-home test to detect cancer, malaria

Issue: November 10, 2016

Chemists at The Ohio State University are developing at-home paper test strips designed to effectively detect diseases such as cancer and malaria.

The strips cost 50 cents each.

Abraham Badu-Tawiah, PhD, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at The Ohio State University, conceived the idea for the paper test strips as a low-cost way of testing for malaria. He envisioned the tests being particularly beneficial for people who live in rural Africa and Southeast Asia, where hundreds of thousands of people die from malaria every year.

Abraham Badu-Tawiah, PhD, conceived the idea for the paper test strips as a low-cost way of testing for malaria.

Images courtesy of Abraham Badu-Tawiah, PhD.

The test also can be tailored to detect any disease for which the human body produces antibodies, including ovarian and colon cancers.

“To get tested, all a person would have to do is put a drop of blood on the paper strip, fold it in half, put it in an envelope and mail it,” Badu-Tawiah said in a press release. “Although this approach requires an initial investment, we believe the low-cost paper-based consumable devices will make it sustainable.”

HemOnc Today spoke with Badu-Tawiah about how the idea for this technology came about, the advantages and potential challenges of this approach to testing, and how much research still needs to be done before widespread use is possible.

Question: How did you get the idea for this technology?

Answer: I was born in Ghana, and I grew up in a village where I saw how we detected and treated disease. I knew there was a better way to go about it. After many years, I came up with the idea for the paper strips. Malaria is killing many infants in Africa. The conditions there are so conducive for insects to grow, and it is almost impossible to kill all of the mosquitos that carry malaria. My approach to this is to focus on the parasite that causes the disease. If we detect the parasite early enough in the human, then we can treat the disease. We can then actually stop the transmission from the insect to the infant and ultimately remove the disease from the continent. I am doing this as a way to give back to Africa.

Q: Where did you start and how do the paper strips work?

A: I completed a PhD in analytical chemistry, where I detected mostly chemical compounds. When I finished this, I moved on to do a post-doctorate, where I had the chance to work on paper devices for disease and diagnosis. I decided I would combine my experience with my PhD and post-doctorate. My colleagues and I tried to invent a probe that we could put onto antibodies. The antibodies would then find the biomarker that we want and put them onto the paper. Once they are placed on the paper, we cleave the ion that is attached to the antibody. Once the ion is cleaved, we use the spectrometer for detection.

Q: What are the findings so far?

The ions that we used are so stable compared with the enzymes that people used before us. Our ions are not sensitive to light or heat, and they are stable when dried. This allows us to store the paper strips for a long time, so the strips can be mailed without affecting the test results. We have assessed this test in the lab and, so far, we have found the test could detect all the way down to one femtomole, or 10^-15, of the biomarker. It is very sensitive to anything that is out there. We also tested how long we can store the strips. We started storing them for as long as 30 days and compared the results with storing them for one day, and the results were almost the same. This is a good thing, because there are no special storage needs. People are, therefore, allowed to test themselves regularly in the villages in Africa. The villages in Africa are created around small towns, and the small towns are created around cities. From the city to the town might only be 10 miles, but facilities are limited. The people from the villages typically travel to nearby towns to sell their farm produce and buy meat and other things. My hope is that when the people of the village come to town to trade, maybe we can provide these strips to them for free, with the help of funding. These test strips can save lives.

Abraham Badu-Tawiah, PhD, and colleagues sought to invent a probe that they could put onto antibodies, which would then find the biomarker and put them onto the paper. Once they are placed on the paper, researchers cleave the ion that is attached to the antibody and use the spectrometer for detection.

Images courtesy of Abraham Badu-Tawiah, PhD.

Q: How much research still needs to be done?

A: We have only tested the strips in the lab. We hope to make them less invasive, so we are now testing the use of them with saliva and urine. We need to achieve more sensitivity, and we are working on this. We are looking for funding that will hopefully help us to travel to the field in Africa and test a large number of people and truly assess the device so that we can see if we need to improve it. I am hoping that by next year I will get a grant to assess the tests in Africa. We also hope to be able to use the paper strips to detect other diseases. Our focus now is on malaria and trying to detect the different species. We hope to one day be able to use the same device to detect maybe five different species so that we can tell which species are causing the majority of disease. We are also testing the strips in detecting cancer, which is prevalent in Africa, in addition to HIV and syphilis. I hope that, eventually, a single paper device can detect multiple diseases from a single drop of blood or from a single drop of urine. People who live in the villages can do the test at home and mail it back to the cities to test it. The people in the labs will then contact the people of the village with the results. Because the test is meant to be routine, we will be able to detect the disease early on.

Q: What are the potential uses of this technology for cancer diagnosis?

A: This is a huge area of focus for us. In fact, I hope to be able to start a new project that will focus solely on cancer. There are disparities even in the United States between the people who live close to a cancer facility and people who live far away. Those who live close get the help they need, but people who live far away do not have their cancer detected early enough. I am hoping that, because this can be cheap and simple enough, it will allow people who are poor or rich, who have insurance or do not have insurance, to have access to care. This is something that I am very interested in, because malaria is an impactful disease that affects people all over the world. But, one step at a time. One of the main challenges we have is funding.

Q: Is your hope to detect all cancer types with the paper strips?

A: Yes. Technology has improved over the years, and we are now able to isolate and characterize biomarkers for different cancers. As we keep track of these discoveries, we will be able to develop cheap analytical devices for all biomarkers.

Q: Are there any disadvantages to this approach?

A: Yes. We use blood for the test now, but ideally we would like to use saliva or urine. We are quickly moving away from using blood for the test. Another possible disadvantage is that the spectrometer we use is slightly expensive, so not every lab will have access to it. I am hoping that with the small money that we raise, we can help maintain the facilities that we have created to do the research. I have ideas of creating smaller instruments that will be much cheaper than what it costs today. But, again, we need the funding to put all of these ideas together. – by Jennifer Southall

For more information:

Abraham Badu-Tawiah, PhD, can be reached at The Ohio State University, 100 W. 18th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210; email: badu-tawiah.1@osu.edu.

Disclosure: Badu-Tawiah reports no relevant financial disclosures.