Sweat sensor warns doctors of impending cytokine storm in COVID-19

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors noted that patients who developed cytokine storm  often

ended up in intensive care and died. There is no exact definition of the concept of “cytokine storm”; in a broad sense, it is understood as a hyperinflammatory reaction in which interferons, interleukins, tumor necrosis factors, chemokines and some other mediators are actively released. In this case, a cytokine storm involves causing harm to the body's own cells due to the release of cytokines. Cytokine storm is easily recognized in hyperinflammatory diseases by elevated levels of cytokines in the absence of a pathogen, but in infectious diseases its interpretation becomes complex because the inflammatory response both helps get rid of the pathogen and causes harm to the body.

By the way, a cytokine storm can also occur in other diseases, for example, influenza. 

The SWEATSENSER Dx sweat sensor, which acts asAn early warning system for an impending cytokine storm will help doctors treat patients more effectively, scientists noted in a report at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Although blood tests can measure cytokines, theydifficult to do at home, and they cannot constantly monitor protein levels. Cytokines are released in sweat in smaller quantities than in the blood. To collect enough sweat for testing, the scientists asked patients to exercise or applied a small electric current to the patients' skin. However, these procedures themselves can alter cytokine levels.

Early detection is important.Once a cytokine storm begins, excessive inflammation can damage organs, causing severe illness and death. But if doctors can prescribe steroid drugs or other treatments once cytokine levels begin to rise, hospitalizations and deaths can be reduced. 

Therefore, the researchers wanted to develop an extremely sensitive method for measuring cytokine levels in tiny amounts of sweat.

If you wear the device on your hand, sweat gets ona disposable sensor strip attached to an electronic reader. It contains two electrodes and is coated with antibodies that bind to two proteins. The binding of proteins to their antibodies changes the electrical current flowing through the electronic board. The reader then wirelessly transmits this data to a smartphone app that converts the electrical measurements into protein concentration.

For their new cytokine sensor, the researchers created sensor strips with antibodies against seven pro-inflammatory proteins.

SWEATSENSER Dx proved to be quite sensitiveeven to measure cytokines in patients taking anti-inflammatory drugs. The device monitored cytokine levels for 168 hours before the sensor strip needed to be replaced.

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