Development of fast and efficient technologies for the diagnosis of critical biomarkers related to biochemical processes, nutrition and the environment aiming at a healthy lifestyle

Abstract

The diagnosis and prevention of diseases and nutritional deficiencies can be performed through the biomonitoring of chemical substances such as critical urinary biomarkers. Many clinical and nutritional responses can be solved by quantifying substances such as nutrients, vitamins, amino acids, organic acids, specific markers for some diseases and biomarkers of environmental exposure, for example. However, due mainly to the high cost of routine exams, populations do not have the habit of fully tracking these substances in their daily lives, and therefore, try to quantify them only when they already have some symptom. Another factor that prevents the tracking of a large number of substances at the same time is the few methods available that analyze these compounds simultaneously, which makes the analytical methods very laborious and time consuming. It is a fact that for a recommendation of healthy living habits and disease prevention, the tracking of the aforementioned metabolites should be constant. With this concern, the company Reload Health Devices Ltda intends to make available on the market to the Brazilian population, using popular prices, kits for home use for analysis of critical urinary metabolites and provide the necessary support for the interpretation of results through the use of specific software and applications (already in the finalization phase). However, when starting the urinary collection studies, there was a need for facilitating kits that eliminated the instability of the analytes during transport until the moment of the analysis. In this sense, we seek through this project, assistance for the manufacture of a micro-sampling device for dry urine (a biopolymer) and for the development of methods of analysis of these compounds using this device. We believe that, in addition to providing the population with nutritional recommendations, disease prevention and encouraging a healthy life, making the proposed biopolymer may generate a patent and become a successful product for use in clinical analysis. (AU)