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Researchers at Wenzhou University of Medicine in China are working on a non-invasive technique to diagnose a variety of diseases, including cancer. The method consists of collecting only one teardrop, which will be purified and analyzed later.
But what distinguishes tears? The answer lies in exosomes, which are tiny vesicles – between 30 and 150 nanometers in diameter – that cells release. Exosomes carry lipids, nucleic acids, and even proteins, which can indicate that a person may have a particular disease.
The system used to separate these sacs from the tears was called iTEARS. More details were published in the scientific journal ACS nano.
During the tests, the scientists were able to distinguish between healthy people and patients with dry eyes based on more than 400 different types of proteins found in tear exosomes. The team reached results in about 5 minutes.
By looking for RNA molecules in the exosome, the researchers were also able to identify people with diabetic retinopathy — retinal damage caused by diabetes.
For now, scientists are focusing on diagnosing eye problems. However, they believe that iTEARS could be used in the future in the search for neurodegenerative diseases and even tumors. Previous studies have linked biomarkers in tears to breast cancer.
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