Scientists design high precision DNA probes for breast cancer detection

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New Delhi: Scientists from India have designed high precision DNA probes for breast cancer detection and they claim that this can bring down the treatment for cancer ten-folds.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology - Guwahati relied on `magic bullets` of science, a class of molecules called aptamers, that can bind to virtually any molecule, clasping it in a firm lock-and-key fit.

"Our team has found an alternative way to detect breast cancer. We have synthesised a special type of aptamer which has high specificity towards estrogen receptor alpha positive breast carcinomas. The aptamer recognises and binds to the receptor even in minute quantities," Arghya Sett, lead author of the study, told IANS.

"It is a low cost, less complex and rapid technology," said Sett of IIT - Guwahati`s Bioengineering Research Laboratory, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering.

The study was published online in December in the Translational Research journal from Elsevier publishing house.

Sett says the novel detection technique has several advantages over conventional diagnostics involving antibodies.

(With IANS inputs)