Project Description:
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is a protein biomarker linked to overall neurological and health and cognitive function. Depleted levels of BDNF are associated with neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and depression; therefore monitoring BDNF levels can help track disease progression and guide individualized rehabilitation and physical therapy treatment. The current measurement standard is a blood-based ELISA test, which requires invasive blood draws, lengthy processing times, and specialized laboratory equipment. This process is uncomfortable for patients and impractical for frequent biomarker quantification. There is a need for non-invasive sample collection and an improved monitoring process with decreased diagnostic time. To address this need, our team tested the feasibility of a saliva-based ELISA to improve patient experience and developed a portable plate reader to decrease protein quantification time. We learned that BDNF is not present in detectable levels in saliva using our ELISA kit which is valuable information for future work. We calibrated a portable plate reader to find concentration from absorbance level for our ELISA standard curve. The ethical impact of our device is overall positive for patients and physicians as it is less invasive than blood sampling, increases sampling frequency, and enables BDNF to be used as a biomarker for treatment regiments.
