IIT Guwahati develops technique to detect cholesterol, triglycerides using advanced nanotechnology

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati) has developed a technique to improve the detection of cholesterol and triglycerides in the human body by combining nanotechnology and molecular detection. Researchers led by Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Chemical Engineering, have developed this innovative approach.

The researchers have developed a technique by integrating Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) on the nanoscale objects. They have utilised “bimetallic nanostructures that are 10,000 times thinner than the width of a human hair for the high-fidelity detection of the biomarkers in the human blood”.

The metabolic biomolecules like cholesterol and triglycerides are important in maintaining a harmonious cardiovascular health of a human body. The ‘high (HDL) and low (LDL) density’ lipoproteins moves cholesterol to the cellular sites for various metabolic activities and an imbalance of both these densities could cause arterial plaque formation that may lead to hypertension, blood clots, or ischemia.

Explaining about the recent discovery, Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, professor at IIT Guwahati, said: “With the recent advent of the low-cost and portable Raman spectroscopy devices open the possibility of utilisation of these sensors for the real-time monitoring of HDL, LDL, VLDL, and TGA at patients’ site, that may help and mitigate the cardiovascular diseases before even their onset if not at the acute stage. Further, IPR of such technologies will enable indigenisation of such high-precision gen-next sensors for the development of our own auto-analysers, which are presently imported from abroad.”

Moreover, Triglycerides (TGA) develops into fatty acids and glycerol during digestion and an elevated level of triglycerides leads to atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease, pancreatitis, type 2 diabetes, or fatty liver, the institute said.

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The newly devised technique can further be translated into a point-of-care device with an enhanced diagnostic precision, it added.

“The researchers employ SERS active bimetallic nanostructures – the silver shelled gold nanorods, which enable a Plasmonic resonance hybridisation of silver and gold to produce augmented spectral resolutions as compared to pristine silver or gold nanorods,” the institute further explained.