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Medical investigations linked with analytical chemistry: from bed to bench
Citation:
Pleil, J., A. Wallace, B. Winters, M. Davis, A. Montpetit, AND M. Madden. Medical investigations linked with analytical chemistry: from bed to bench. International Association of Breath Research Meeting, Maastricht, NETHERLANDS, June 17 - 20, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation at the International Association of Breath Research Meeting in Maastricht, Netherlands June 15-20, 2018
Description:
Exhaled breath is a preferred biological medium both for assessing exposures and health state in public health research as well as for diagnostic medicine. There are differences in data structures, however. Subjects in environmental or public health studies are generally considered healthy (at least free from diagnosed disease) and so their biomarkers concentrations reflect an “unremarkable” distribution. Within such cross-sectional data, we really cannot determine who is truly healthy, and who is at risk from an undiagnosed condition. This is where samples from medically diagnosed patients can provide answers. By comparing samples from the “bed” with samples from the general population, we expect to develop dynamic range in biomarker measures and assess where distribution of healthy levels merge into the regime of pre-clinical and ultimately ill patients’ levels. Recently, we have focused on “bench” scale investigations of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) to measure semi-volatile and non-volatile fractions of breath such as proteins, bacteria, viruses, cytokines, and fatty acids as biomarkers of health state. In particular, we have analyzed a series of biological specimens for cytokines from ill patients on ventilators as well as from a number of nominally healthy subjects using ELISA techniques. We are also exploring LC-MS discovery analysis of EBC for other chemicals such as fatty acids. Preliminary results indicate that we could assess the range from nominally healthy to the diagnosed ill cohorts by combining such data. We have recently modified this approach to collect the exhaled breath aerosols (EBA) fraction of EBC using simple hospital style masks and wipes from surfaces of respiratory protective gear. Although still in its infancy, this “bed to bench” approach may allow us to estimate levels of concern of endogenous biomarkers from human samples, and ultimately use this information to gauge when ill patients become better and which people in the general population may be trending towards pre-clinical illness.
