Regular DVD Is Modified To Provide Accurate And Cost Efficient HIV Tests

A huge part in the ‘AIDS problems’ is diagnosis. If the virus can be detected earlier then patients have higher chances of surviving or being cured. It may sound easy but it is not, since there haven’t been a lot of diagnostic tests that can examine people at a fast pace.

This month, Nature Photonics made an announcement that caught a lot of attention. The announcement is about the report in Lab Chip claiming an ordinary yet modified DVD player has the capacity to supply fast and precise tests for HIV as well as other diseases.

To perform its tasks, the DVD must undergo three modifications. First, is inserting a new photodiode which is intended to grab the needed information. Second, loading the player with special lab software. Lastly, are the specialized disposable, multiplayer, semi-transparent polymer discs. The last modification provides a bit of complexity to the DVD diagnosis since they need to be fashioned for binding a specific disease marker, in this case binding the CD4 with helper T-cells then using their abundance to determine the presence of HIV.

Basically, examination can now commence once the DVD player has the above modifications as well as the custom made CD4-binding discs. Although, the assay discs need to be created for every target cell or molecule as well as it is unclear whether the discs can be used again after each examination, the tech is expected to currently provide researchers all over the world with accurate yet low-cost solutions. via [ExtremeTech]