Biochip Detection Technology: Human Health Scouts

In biochips, biological probes are placed on a piece of nail-sized glass slide, silicon wafer, nylon membrane, etc. It first reacts with the sample to be tested, then collects signals related to the reaction result, and finally uses a computer or Other methods analyze the data results. As early as 1997, "Fortune" magazine reported that "In the history of science and technology in the 20th century there are two things that have far-reaching implications: First, microelectronics chips, which are the 'heart' of computers and many home appliances, have changed our economy and culture. Living, and has entered every family; the other is the biological chip, it will change the way of life science research, innovative medical diagnosis and treatment, and greatly improve the quality of the population and health."

Academician Cheng said that the role of biochips is to help realize disease warning, prevention and individualized treatment. It is a detection tool, much like a sensor, and looks like a computer chip. It holds different biological materials or biomolecules. With these biomolecules, it can target the corresponding biological samples (blood, urine, sputum, etc.) Conduct the test. By comparing the data of the normal sample with the data of the test sample, and analyzing whether there is a difference, the doctor can judge whether the subject's body has a disease according to the difference. The biochip is like a scout, detecting the cause in advance, and knowing each other to a certain extent. James Watson, a Nobel Prize-winning American who is known as the “father of DNA,” predicts that genetic testing of individuals will become one of the routine means of diagnosing diseases in the next ten years. Physicians can make medical recommendations to individuals who carry bad genes by studying their genetic sequences, and thus can more effectively treat complex diseases such as mental illness, cancer, and diabetes.

Biochips can be used to diagnose genetic diseases. In China, there are many types of genetic diseases, and there are more than 4,000 single-gene genetic diseases. The prevention and early intervention of these diseases are very important, but there was a lack of effective means for early diagnosis. The root cause of inherited diseases is due to changes in the normal genetic sequence, and the position of the gene sequence changes and the type of change can be accurately determined by a gene chip (a type of biochip). The biochip can also play a role in the diagnosis and detection of infectious diseases, organ transplantation, drug screening, individualized medication, health quarantine, and forensic identification.

Among the many applications of biochips, what people are most concerned about is its prevention and diagnosis of human diseases. Academician Cheng said that at present, biochips have entered clinical applications and have begun to benefit thousands of families. Deafnesses like Dai Lihua are caused by maternal genetic factors, and it is estimated that there are nearly 40,000 new deaf children in China each year, of which more than half are hereditary deafness. It has been found that a variety of gene mutations are involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. There are many genes associated with caries and more sites to be detected. Traditional detection techniques such as sequencing are often expensive and complicated to operate. Biochips are integrated, high-throughput, fast and easy, and help clinicians solve this problem.

In cooperation with the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, Tsinghua University, Central South University and other units, Boao Bio has developed a genetic deafness gene detection chip. In addition to detecting patients with neurogenic deafness and large vestibular aqueduct syndrome, the chip can also detect whether people are carriers of drug-induced deafness genes. About 5% of patients with congenital deafness in China carry mitochondrial mutations, and mitochondrial mutations are closely related to drug-induced deafness caused by aminoglycosides. All carriers who have been diagnosed with a drug-induced deafness mutation need life-long bans such as streptomycin, gentamycin, kanamycin, tobramycin, amikacin, neomycin, etc. Aminoglycosides, otherwise it may lead to "a pinch."

According to Academician Cheng, the price of biochips for ordinary consumers is getting lower and lower, and the cost of a biochip test is only a few hundred dollars. Biotechnology now has four biochip products that have obtained the certificate of medical device registration from the China Food and Drug Administration and have begun to enter the hospital. As the demand for bulk products increases, the prices will be even cheaper and ordinary people will be able to afford them in the future.

Academician Cheng said that in the past, people were very expensive and they did not keep up with the technical testing methods. For example, a patient who has an infectious disease goes to a hospital for treatment. The doctor will say that if you eat some antibiotics to see the effect, you will not be able to change it again. Now, if you use a biochip to test it, it will be clear that the patient suffers. What is the source of the infection and what drugs the patient is resistant to, and then can be used in a targeted manner, which will greatly reduce the economic burden on the patient and achieve the goal of rapid and effective treatment.

In addition to checking for diseases, the most important role of biochips is prevention. After the Chinese are generally prosperous, the concern for health is no longer confined to the treatment of illness but to health investment, early prevention and early detection. The sooner you discover a potential condition, the sooner you prevent and treat it, the better it will be, and the more you save money. If you suffer from retreatment, your costs may be very different and your patients will suffer more. The most terrible thing is that some diseases can be incurable if they break out. Take deaf patients as an example. Once the hearing is disabled, a cochlear implant needs to be implanted, and the cheapest one is 100,000 yuan. Before pregnancy, it costs hundreds of yuan to do a pre-pregnancy screening to avoid tragedy. Through the pre-pregnancy testing of biochips, couples can learn about the risk of future children suffering from certain congenital diseases, make choices, and take preventive measures.

Boao Bio has a biochip that is specifically designed for early warning. It can perform individual genetic testing on 9 common diseases and 68 diseases commonly found in humans. (Love Genealogy individual genetic testing service: The love genealogy is a gene, A series of biochip service projects that provide individual genetic testing at multiple levels of protein, involving nearly 1,500 genes and a total of 3,000 disease-related genetic loci). A test cost hundreds of dollars, and all of them need to be done, and they will cost 10,000 yuan, but they will do it once in a lifetime. Of course, today's biochip detection technology cannot detect all risks to the human body. Precaution is not a diagnosis. It is only through the detection and analysis of human genetic characteristics, compared with more than 60 disease-related gene mutations, and judged by disease-related genetics. The risk that the factor brings. However, risk does not necessarily mean that the disease will occur, because the acquired environmental factors play a greater role, accounting for 70% to 80% of the weight of the disease.