Mexico City.- Scientists from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) develop a biosensor to detect early high blood pressure, which is designed with gold nanoparticles and coupled to an antibody, which allows to diagnose the condition through a blood sample and thus prevent the death of people by this problem that evolves silently and causes cardiovascular and renal complications. Public Education Secretary Esteban Moctezuma Barragán stressed that scientific and technological input will better overcome the health emergency, to turn problems into opportunities and drive Mexico’s development.
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The project, carried out by the scientist of the National School of Medicine and Homeopathy (ENMH), Doris Cerecedo Mercado, represents an important step forward in detecting this disease in a timely manner, since, with the support of its research team, it was discovered that hypertensive people have an overexpression of the protein responsible for transporting salt inside platelets (blood cells).
The polytechnic researcher observed this overexpression using a fluorescent antibody: “We correlated the fluorescence level with the amount of protein overexpression present in the sample platelets of 25 hypertensive patients and 25 healthy people, in whom the expression was lower.” He reported that the project was carried out in collaboration with Dr. Beatriz de la Mora Mojica, the Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Dr. Diana García Rubio, graduated from the PhD in Biotechnology of ENMH. The scientist, Level II of the National System of Researchers (SNI), explained that experiments with nanoparticles are very specific and allow to deepen the studies, in order to make the biosensor a routine diagnostic test accessible to laboratories in the health and private sector, which will be able to know the diagnosis when reading the blood samples. “Early detection of hypertension will allow patients to be treated timely for a better quality of life.” Finally, Dr. Cerecedo Mercado referred that the biomarker represents an innovation in the field of clinical diagnosis, so they already have the registration of protection before the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI). “The development of the biosensor has already been published in a scientific journal of international prestige and, as a product of the research line, a doctoral thesis and two master’s thesis have been generated; in addition, two more master’s degrees are in process,” he concluded.
