Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati have developed an innovative approach to improve the detection of cholesterol and triglycerides by integrating Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) on the nanoscale objects, officials said.

The findings of the research were recently published in the noted journal --Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

According to Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Professor at Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT-Guwahati, the work utilises bimetallic nanostructures that are 10,000 times thinner than the width of a human hair for the high-fidelity detection of the biomarkers in the human blood.

"The metabolic biomolecules like cholesterol and triglycerides play pivotal role in maintaining a harmonious cardiovascular health of a human body. The high (HDL) and low (LDL) density lipoproteins transport cholesterol to the cellular sites for various metabolic activities," he said.

Bandyopadhyay explained an imbalance of LDL and HDL causes arterial plaque formation leading to hypertension, formation of blood clots, or ischemia.

On the other hand, triglycerides (TGA) transform into fatty acids and glycerol during digestion which in turn is packaged inside lipoproteins namely very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), for transportation to the cells. An elevated level of triglycerides leads to atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease, pancreatitis, type 2 diabetes, or fatty liver, he said.

"Therefore, the timely detection of any abnormality and a close monitoring of cholesterol and triglyceride levels in blood is highly sought for. While traditional lipid profile tests of blood are reliable, they often require laboratory settings, are not available as a point-of-care solution, and can take time to provide results," he said.

IIT-Guwahati claimed that their researchers have focused on a technique that combines nanotechnology and molecular detection, which can further be translated into a point-of-care as device with an enhanced diagnostic precision.

"The researchers employ SERS active bimetallic nanostructures – the silver shelled gold nanorods, which enable a plasmonic resonance hybridisation of silver and gold to produce augmented spectral resolutions as compared to pristine silver or gold nanorods.

"Subsequently, these bimetallic nanorods are linked to two different Raman active receptors and immobilised with the enzymes cholesterol oxidase and lipase for concurrent detection of different concentrations of cholesterol and triglycerides. Such innovations help in the development of a platform for the ultrafast point-of-care detection kit with a higher level of the detection sensitivity," Bandyopadhyay said.

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