Nanosensors: Qualitative Factors in the Medical Device Industry

Sensors have a wide range of uses in aerospace, machinery, instrumentation, automotive manufacturing, petroleum (oil and gas exploration), electronic engineering, and medical device industries. Current sensor technology has begun to be used in a variety of medical device products.

In recent years, foreign researchers have successively developed a variety of new Nano Senser products that far surpass the efficiency of existing hospital testing equipment when diagnosing diseases. For example, two scientists at the Center for Nanomaterials and Sensors at Stony Brook University in the United States recently developed a new type of breath analyzer that uses a nanomaterial sensor as its main component. As long as the person with diabetes spits on the device with his mouth, the device can immediately display the patient's fasting or postprandial glycemic index. The breath analyzer can eliminate the cumbersome steps of existing blood tests for blood sugar. It is believed that once the easy-to-use breath blood glucose analyzer has been identified and put on the market, there will inevitably be a broad market prospect in the future.

Tuberculosis: Expected to change diagnostic methods Tuberculosis has returned to the rest of the world in the past decade. According to World Health Organization officials, there are more than 2 million people who die of tuberculosis every year in the world in recent years. The early diagnosis of tuberculosis is very important. Because once the patient has hemoptysis and lung holes, his condition has developed to very serious and it is difficult to treat. However, the problem is that the existing tuberculosis diagnosis technology is still using the “cultivating culture method” developed several decades ago. This testing method often leads to false results such as false negatives. Sometimes even doctors use advanced technologies such as CT or X-ray. Diagnostic imaging equipment is also difficult to determine the patient's progress in pulmonary tuberculosis, so it is imperative to change the existing diagnostic methods for pulmonary tuberculosis.

Recently, scientists from the London Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases in the United Kingdom have used newly developed nanomaterials to create a new type of nanosensor that can detect the presence or absence of tuberculosis on the spot for patients. According to British researchers, the tuberculosis tester has a very low cost and is suitable for popularization in areas with high incidence of tuberculosis in Southeast Asia.

Cancer: fighting for early diagnosis The incidence of cancer has risen rapidly in both developed and developing countries in the past 10 years. But cancer does not have the early symptoms like other diseases. Once a tumor patient finds a certain part of the body to be unwell, he or she has often reached the advanced stage of cancer and lost the optimal period of cancer treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

In 2009, researchers at Tsukuba University in Japan announced that they have successfully synthesized a luminescent protein that emits fluorescence in the near-infrared region. This luminescent protein can easily penetrate into living tissues (it is harmless to tissues). Animal experiments confirmed that micro-luminescence protein was injected into the liver of liver cancer experimental animals. With the use of a CCD camera, a very clear picture of liver cancer can be photographed under near-infrared light irradiation, allowing doctors to determine the location of the tumor and take symptomatic treatment measures in time.

Prior to this, researchers at Stanford University in the United States had synthesized a new material called "nanotube". According to reports, carbon nanotubes are injected into cancer experimental animals after being labeled with fluorescent markers, and then examined by Raman spectroscopy. The same can accurately diagnose the location and size of tumors.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom have developed a nano-biosensor that can be used to determine if a patient has oral cancer by applying a cotton ball to the nanosensor.

Researchers at Harvard University have developed a silicon nanowire that can be connected to an antibody receptor to detect cancer markers in the patient's blood. Previous reports have reported that people with cancer have hundreds of nanometers of cancer markers in their blood, but they cannot be measured by current diagnostic techniques. The nano-silicon biosensor invented by Harvard University is expected to be used in blood test technology in the future to determine whether a patient has cancer.

Dr. Xiaoyuan Chen and his assistants, scientists from China's United States, have developed a new type of nano-biosensor that can be used by MRI/PET diagnostic imaging devices. According to reports, the biosensor is a manganese/iron nano magnetic particle labeled with radioactive iodine, injected into a tumor experimental animal body, and MRI/PET examination can be used to immediately detect whether the cancer cell has metastasized through the lymphatic system. The radioactive iodine-labeled nanoparticles will have broad application prospects in the clinical diagnosis of malignant tumors.

Gene Therapy: Nanomaterials Research Follow-up For decades, gene therapy has been a wonderful idea in the medical community. Because correcting the patient's genetic defects can fundamentally cure a variety of genetic diseases. However, gene therapy involves DNA therapy, which requires the participation of nanotechnology.

Researchers at the U.S. State University of Wisconsin have developed a novel nanofilm that consists of DNA and a water-soluble polymer. Implanting it into laboratory animals can slowly release DNA into its proper location and exert its therapeutic effects. According to US researchers, this water-soluble nano-film material also has a wide range of uses in medical devices. Such as the current international market best-selling vascular stent products, such as the surface covered with a layer of nano-film can slowly release the anti-lipid deposition of drugs, which can prevent blood lipids in the stent lumen caused by a large number of blood vessels after the blockage. In addition, nano-DNA films can also be used on other implantable medical device products. In short, the invention of sustained-release DNA nano-film will completely change the existing appearance of existing implantable medical devices, and will promote the development of more new implantable medical devices.

In 2008, researchers at the University of Tehran in Iran wrote in the famous international scientific journal Material Science that they have developed a new type of nano-material, nanocrystals coated with plasma titanium. It will be widely used in high-end diagnostic equipment such as spacecraft manufacturing, oil exploration, MRI and CT. Because titanium coating nanocrystals have excellent corrosion resistance, radiation resistance and high temperature resistance, the performance of existing instruments can be greatly improved.

Over the past few years, the development of nanosensors has begun to accelerate. Some biosensors have begun to be used in new products for medical devices. In summary, with the advent of more and more new types of nano-sensor products, the world's medical device industry will undergo a qualitative leap in the next few years, and nano-sensor technology will completely change the traditional medical technology and medical device industry.