DNA test could expand access to cervical cancer screening | Rice News | News and Media Relations

Rice University bioengineers have demonstrated an inexpensive, point-of-care DNA test for HPV infections that could make cervical cancer screening more accessible in low-income countries and intermediate where the disease kills more than 300,000 women every year.

HPV, a family of viruses, infects almost everyone at some point in their lives, often without symptoms. But more than a dozen types of HPV can cause persistent infections that lead Cervical cancerWhich one is preventable and curable if detected early and managed effectively.

Nine engineers from Professor Rice’s lab Rebecca Richards-Kortum has spent more than two years developing a DNA testing platform that combines two technologies, isothermal DNA amplification and lateral flow detection, in a way that greatly simplifies equipment requirements and testing procedures. test. In a study published this week in scientific translational medicine, the Richards-Kortum team and co-authors from the National Cancer Institute, Mozambique Ministry of Health, Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center showed that the platform could produce clinically relevant results on samples collected from both US clinical sites and field clinical sites in Mozambique.

“We know what we need to do to prevent cervical cancer,” said the study’s first author. Catherine Kundrodcancer prevention researcher at the National Cancer Institute and senior advisor for moonshot cancer policy coordination in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “It’s really about access at this point, and that’s one of the reasons why this study is exciting from a global health perspective. It demonstrates a testing process that could potentially be combined with point-of-care diagnostic and treatment technologies to enable women who have never had access to them to be screened and treated in a single visit in settings like a small clinic or mobile diagnostic van.”

In the study, the researchers showed that their six-step test for HPV16 and HPV18 – two types that account for around 70% of cervical cancers – gave results in 45 minutes and required no only two devices. One, a small juicer, is widely available for around $500. The other, a purpose-built dual-chamber heater called NATflow, allowed researchers to use disposable cartridges to avoid false positives resulting from workspace contamination, a major challenge for researchers. point-of-care molecular testing.

“The vast majority of diseases detected by screening are precancerous, before people have cancer,” said Richards-Kortum, a Malcolm Gillis University professor at Rice, professor of bioengineering and founding director of Rice360. Institute for Global Health Technologies. “That’s why screening programs are so effective. People who are systematically screened very rarely progress to cancer of the cervix. It’s the people who have never been tested in their life, or who get tested at very infrequent intervals, who are really at risk. This is why it is so essential to address the disparities that exist and to think of new ways to offer screening, diagnosis and treatment.

Kundrod, who earned his doctorate. from Rice in 2020, is a former student and postdoctoral researcher in the Richards-Kortum lab who led the day-to-day development of the HPV test and co-development of the platform in collaboration with manufacturer NATflow Axxine from Victoria, Australia. Kundrod said if the NATflow platform and test cartridges were mass-produced, each dual-chamber heater would cost around $500 and each test less than $5.

“The platform is the other thing that makes this exciting because it can easily be adapted to DNA testing for other diseases,” she said. “Preventing contamination has been a huge issue for point-of-care DNA testing. It’s one of the first platforms to solve this problem, and so far it’s the only one to solve this problem in a way where all parts can be easily made by injection molding, which is important from a cost perspective.

Kundrod said the Rice team’s HPV test won’t be ready for widespread use until researchers modify it to detect more carcinogenic HPV types and perform additional clinical tests. She said studies have consistently shown that HPV testing is the most effective way to prevent cervical cancer and that DNA testing is the most effective way to screen for HPV infections.

“We are grateful to the entire team who made this work possible and are committed to continued development and scale in places where cervical cancer screening is most needed,” said Richards. – Kortum.

This research was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (CA016672, CA249367), the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Agency for International Development (AID-OAA-A-11-00012), the MD Anderson Multidisciplinary Research Program, the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

Peer-reviewed article

“An Integrated Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification Assay for Detecting HPV16 and HPV18 DNA in Resource-Limited Settings” | Scientific advances | DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abn4768

Authors: Kathryn A. Kundrod, Maria Barra, Alexis Wilkinson, Chelsey A. Smith, Mary E. Natoli, Megan M. Chang, Jackson B. Coole, Akshaya Santhanaraj, Cesaltina Lorenzoni, Celda Mavume, Hira Atif, Jane Richards Montealegre, Michael E. Scheurer, Philip E. Castle, Kathleen M. Schmeler, and Rebecca R. Richards-Kortum

https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abn4768

Image downloads

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/06/0626_HPV-KkRrkMn-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Left to right, Kathryn Kundrod ’20, Rebecca Richards-Kortum and Mary Natoli ’20 in Rice University’s Richards-Kortum lab in March 2020. Kundrod, Richards-Kortum and Natoli are co-authors of a new study that demonstrated the efficacy of a low-cost, point-of-care DNA test for HPV infections that could enable increased cervical cancer screening in low- and middle-income countries where the disease kills more than 300,000 women each year. (Photo by Jade Boyd/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/06/0626_HPV-POCtest-1080.jpg
CAPTION: An inexpensive, point-of-care DNA test for HPV infections that was invented at Rice University provides results in 45 minutes and requires only two pieces of equipment, a small centrifuge (not pictured) that costs around 500 $ and NATflow, a specially designed dual-chamber heater that uses disposable cartridges to avoid false positives resulting from workspace contamination, a major challenge in point-of-care molecular testing. (Figure courtesy of Richards-Kortum Lab/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/06/0626_HPV-steps-1500.jpg
CAPTION: The six-step process of a new point-of-care DNA test for HPV infections that could enable greater access to cervical cancer screening in low- and middle-income countries where the disease kills more than 300,000 women every year. (Figure courtesy of Richards-Kortum Lab/Rice University)

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