Scientists from Russian Institute of Molecular Biology started certification of biological chips for distinguishing strains of hepatitis C virus.

New technology has enormous market potential, since traditional techniques cannot tell viral strain in one case out of three. Biochips allow predicting disease development and prescribing appropriate therapy, which is nearly 100% effective.

Hepatitis C virus requires precise diagnostics, since virus’s mutability is extremely high; moreover, various viral subtypes need specific treatment with individual adjustment of drugs and doses. Some cases allow therapy reduction, which is important due to high treatment costs.

Hepatitis C virus as chosen due to several reasons. First, hepatitis C is a socially significant disease, which has no vaccine. Second, biochips are the best way to detect this virus, because biochips perform multiparameter analysis, which identifies all possible pathogens in a single sample of biological fluids (blood, serum or urine).

Biochip project will be finished before the end on this year. Several hundreds of virus samples will be analyzed within this project, and then scientists will submit protocols to health authorities in order to get registration certificate for using biochips in Russia.

Source: Science & Technology

http://www.russia-ic.com/news/show/6460/

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