Russian scientists managed to improve the blood test for bilirubin. This was reported by the press service of Skoltech.
4/5 of premature babies suffer from physiological jaundice, which should not be confused with the disease caused by hepatitis. In this disease, the liver cannot effectively remove bilirubin, which is formed during the breakdown of red blood cells. To treat this condition, children are prescribed medications and also exposed to blue light. However, it is still unclear to scientists at what frequency the light should be and the optimal treatment time and strength. In addition, radiation parameters should vary according to the severity of the disease and can only be determined by accurately measuring the concentration of bilirubin in the blood.
In this regard, Skoltech scientists have proposed a way to improve the accuracy of a blood test using the fluorescence method. Fluorescence is the physical process of re-emitted light by molecules at a lower frequency, i.e. the wavelength shifts towards the red range in the spectrum and the wave carries less energy. By measuring fluorescence for a range of known bilirubin concentrations, you can use this data to measure the bilirubin concentration in target samples.
It was assumed that in a solution containing a high concentration of bilirubin, fluorescence would increase with exposure to blue light. This is because in a concentrated solution, a significant portion of the fluorescent light emitted by bilirubin is reabsorbed by other bilirubin molecules before fluorescence is detected. As the concentration gradually decreases under the influence of blue light, such “quenching” becomes less pronounced and the fluorescence becomes more pronounced. But the real surprise for the researchers was the similar fluorescence dynamics in solutions containing low concentrations of bilirubin.
As a result, the scientists formalized the dynamics of bilirubin fluorescence and recorded it in the form of a graph. It can be used to uniquely compare the fluorescence intensity of a sample with the concentration of a substance. The authors hope that this discovery will make the treatment of physiological jaundice in infants safer and more effective.
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