[지금은 과학] To measure dopamine levels accurately … brain disease can be diagnosed quickly

[아이뉴스24 정종오 기자] Technology has developed that can accurately measure dopamine.

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS, President Park Hyun-Min) has succeeded in developing a technology that can accurately measure and measure dopamine concentrations, which are important neurotransmitters associated with cerebral neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

The technology used a digital signaling technique based on nanostructures to count dopamine detection one by one. It is more accurate than current technology that summarizes and analyzes the entire measurement signal. In the future, it is expected to be used for early diagnosis and monitoring of brain and nerve related diseases.

Parkinson’s disease, one of the most common causes of brain damage, occurs when nerve cells in the area where dopamine is secreted are damaged. In the case of various addictions such as alcohol, shopping and nicotine, when the level of dopamine in the brain is high, the frontal lobe of the brain that controls the stimuli is constantly stimulated and it may seem that you cannot control it on your own. Triggers.

Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter involved in various brain functions and physiological conditions. Because it is a substance related to metabolic function and the immune system that regulates the immune system, changes in dopamine levels are important in the diagnosis of various brain and nerve related diseases.

To measure changes in dopamine levels needed to diagnose brain neurological diseases, a sensor capable of accurately detecting 1 pM (picomolar, one trillion per mole) is needed. The electrochemical sensor, one of the representatively developed technologies, can detect quickly with high sensitivity, but it is difficult to distinguish objects with similar capabilities based on the measurement principle, so accuracy is low.

Eun-ah Yoo, a senior researcher at the KRISS Material Convergence Measurement Research Institute, developed a digital surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensitivity platform that can detect highly sensitive dopamine accurately and quantitatively through joint research with Virginia Tech. It is the first of its kind in the world to offer a new type of nano architecture based digital sensing platform.

The joint research team modified the three-dimensional nano-structural layer and the gold nanoparticles with molecules that selectively target dopamine. When dopamine was attached, they developed a hotspot structure that could generate a strong SERS signal.

Digital signal analysis was performed by counting ‘on’ and ‘off’ at the point where strong SERS signals generated from hotspots are generated due to gold nanoparticles recognizing dopamine-linked sites on the nano-structured gold surface. With this, dopamine was able to detect hypersensitivity, selectivity and volume up to 1pM, which was difficult to accurately detect.

“This technology is highly applicable because it can be used directly on medical models such as human cerebrospinal fluid,” said senior researcher Una Yu. We plan to develop technology to detect it. “

Research results (Sheet title: Digital SERS sensitivity platform using 3D nanolaminate plasmonic crystals and Au nanoparticles for accurate detection of dopamine) were published as a cover journal in nanoscale, an international scientific journal in the field of nanotechnology in November.