Blood Test Used for Noninvasive Monitoring of Gene Expression in the Brain [Study]

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Vegasjon)
Blood Test Used For Noninvasive Monitoring of Gene Expression in the Brain [Study]

Scientists have found a new, noninvasive way to test gene expression in the brain. The new approach makes use of a specialized blood vessel.

Blood Test To Test Gene Expression In The Brain

In a new study, researchers at Rice University have created a noninvasive method for tracking expression dynamics in the brain, which will facilitate the study of neurological disorders, cognitive function, and brain development.

Released markers of activity (RMAs) are a novel class of molecules that Rice bioengineer Jerzy Szablowski and colleagues have created. These molecules can be used as a simple blood test to detect gene expression in the brain.

Generally, post-mortem analyses are required to examine gene expression in the brain, according to Szablowski, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice's George R. Brown School of Engineering.

This can be achieved with more advanced neuroimaging techniques, but their sensitivity and specificity are insufficient to monitor changes in particular cell types.

Szablowski added that they can introduce a synthetic gene expression reporter that creates a protein that can cross the blood-brain barrier into the brain using the RMA platform. A straightforward blood test can theo quantify changes in a gene of interest's expression.

RMAs are a crucial research tool, according to Szablowski, that will enable scientists to track gene expression in the brain better. He mentioned that the RMA platform might be utilized to examine the duration of time that innovative gene therapies remain in the brain.

"We could track these new therapies with just a blood test and continue to monitor them over time since the RMA platform is noninvasive," he said. "But we can also use RMAs to study gene expression as it relates to disease. Being able to track different gene expression changes will allow us to understand what leads to disease and how the disease itself changes gene expression in the brain. This could provide new clues for drug development, or even for how to prevent neurological diseases in the first place."

Previous studies have established that the neonatal fragment crystallizable receptor (FcRn), a gene that regulates the number of antibodies throughout the body, is how antibodies penetrate the blood-brain barrier. To take advantage of this biological escape hatch, Szablowski and colleagues used advanced bioengineering techniques to connect antibody portion, facilitating passage through the blood-brain barrier to a common reporter protein.

The researchers then observed that expression mirrored in the mouse's blood after attaching the RMAs to a particular gene and expressing it in the mouse's brain.

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