Skin patches may soon succeed syringes to diagnose diseases

Scientists have been working on creating skin patches, which would be less painful alternative for disease diagnosis and could one day replace the syringes.

Simon R. Corrie and colleagues note that while blood is rich with molecular clues that tell a story about a person's health, withdrawing it is often painful. It also requires trained personnel and expensive lab equipment and facilities for analysis.

Scientists have been trying to address these hurdles by developing diagnostic patches that are covered on one side with thousands of microscopic, hollow needles that can sample fluid in the skin. But so far, these devices have only been able to test for one compound at a time. However, many diseases can be diagnosed more reliably by detecting multiple biomarkers. Corrie's team wanted to design a new patch that could meet this need.

The researchers optimized their device so it could capture two biomarkers for the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which kills more than 1 million people every year.

The study is published in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.