Personalized on-a-chip test for inhalation allergies
jnikolaMay 11, 2022
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Allergic rhinitis can occur as a systemic allergy with systemic atopy and a positive skin prick/blood test or as local allergic rhinitis (LAR) as a local allergic reaction affecting only the nasal mucosa without systemic atopy.
==> A simple test that tests the sensitivity of a patient's nose and sinuses epithelial cells to inhalation allergens. In other words, a test that can detect nasal LAR.
Why?
There are no existing tests that can easily and specifically test patients' sensitivity to inhalation allergens and therefore help identify inhalation allergens causing allergic rhinitis.
How would it work?
Patients with suspected allergies to inhalation allergens would come to the hospital and have their nasal epithelial cells isolated and cultured as described by Hussain et al (2013) .
Patients nasal epithelial cells would then be seeded into specially designed microfluidics chips (Figure 1). The chip would be designed to have multiple channels for multiple allergen testing in the same time (Figure 2). The allergens would be introduced by air to simulate inhalation allergen effect on nasal mucus. After every reaction, nasal mucus would be collected and washed with saline.
Measuring parameters would be objective and would consist of technical characteristics like volume of the channel, secreted nasal mucus volume, time fo reaction, response to increasing concentrations of allergen (determining the triggering concentration), with additional chemical and biological analysis of the secreted mucus (diagnostic phase) and cells which could later be lysed and their DNA/RNA sequenced to look for changed genes or pathways (research phase). Since different measuring systems can be implemented on a chip, different characteristics could be tracked during exposure to allergens (molecules in the exiting air, different temperatures of the air, etc).
Figure 1. Concept of nasal-mucus-on-a-chip showed on an example of lung-on-a-chip
It could also be used for nonallergic rhinitis trigger detection, too, by applying different conditions mimicking weather conditions, infections, medications, hormone changes, etc. It could serve as a drug testing tool by applying inhalation or liquid drugs on a specific patient's cells.
Additional information
Allergies are hypersensitive disorders of the immune system. Basically, your system reacts to non-harmful allergens. Allergens can enter human body through:
Allergic rhinitis is an allergic reaction caused by the inhalation of the particles such as pollen, dust mites or tiny flecks of skin and saliva shed by cats, dogs and other animals with fur or feathers .
Current allergy tests can be divided on:
skin tests
Skin prick test (SPT) - tests IgE mediated type I allergic reactions (allergic rhynitis, atopic asthma, acute urticaria, food allergy, etc.); study showed that SPT alone was capable of detecting only 68.5% of allergic rhinitis patients
Intradermal skin tests (ID) - same as the above, but the antigen is injected in the outer layer of the skin
Patch test - investigation of the antigens causing contact dermatitis
blood tests
Total serum IgE - scanning blood for specific antibodies
challenge tests - you are challenged to ingest an increasing amounts of the suspected allergen under doctor's supervision
other specific allergic rhinitis tests:
Nasal alergen provocation test (NAPT)
It uses real-time response to allergens to determine the local allergic response by measuring subjective (nasal obstruction, rhinorrhea, itching, sneezing, and ocular symptoms were recorded by using a visual analog scale (VAS)) and objective (nasal patency measured by acoustic rhinometry) parameters .
Minuses: many factors can affect local allergic reaction, only one (or a few) allergens at a time, not a safe method of testing patients with strong allergic reactions
jnikola May 11, 2022