Period blood can help trace this notoriously difficult condition to diagnose in women

A research team from the Pennsylvania State University is developing a portable testing device that can detect HMGB1, a protein biomarker present in period blood and associated with progression of endometriosis.

A biomarker present in the period blood can help medical doctors to detect a debilitating inflammatory disorder in women, a research has found out.

Some scientists are developing a testing tool that is highly sensitive to this protein and can provide insightful information about a woman’s reproductive health.

Nearly waiting ten years to get an on-paper diagnosis and detection only possible after a physician places a keyhole cut on one’s abdomen — this has been the fate of most women having endometriosis.

Listed among the most painful conditions, endometriosis affects almost 42 million girls and women in India.

Dismissed initially as painful menstruation, the hormonal condition has many social barriers that prevents its early detection.

However, clinically the biggest challenge so far has been the absence of a non-invasive test that can spot the condition, for instance, like a standalone blood test or a detailed imaging that could diagnose the condition in no time.

An expert speaking to Yale News said that a girl or a woman has to be in a lot of pain before they decide to undergo a keyhole surgery to see the affected areas.

The scientific community is shifting their gaze to find biomarkers in the blood which could indicate the condition without having the patient go under the knife.

High-Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1), a protein biomarker present in the period blood is one of them.

What is endometriosis?

Endometrium forms the lining of the uterus, a highly elastic organ that holds the fetus during the pregnancy.

In some people, this endometrial tissue starts to grow outside the uterus and this becomes endometriosis.

As per John Hopkins Medicine, this tissue can start to grow on and around the fallopian tubes, ovaries, between uterus and rectum, between uterus and bladder and rarely it can be seen around the cervix, intestines, stomach and near other organs.

The presence of abnormal tissue outside the uterus can trigger inflammation, scarring and cyst formation in those areas.

Also, irrespective of its position in the body, this tissue responds to the reproductive hormones causing it to — thicken, bleed or even break down.

This makes this condition extremely painful for the affected people.

For the longest, it has been diagnosed using a laparoscopic cut where the surgeon places a camera inside the pelvis to detect the movement of the tissue outside the uterus.

A testing tool in progress?

A research team from the Pennsylvania State University is developing a portable testing device that can detect HMGB1, a protein biomarker associated with progression of endometriosis.

As per Professor Dipanjan Pan, the lead researcher, this borophene-based testing strip is 500 percent more sensitive to this protein than other parallel laboratory tests.

The findings published in the ACS Central Science found that the conventional diagnostic approaches involve intravenous blood tests, lab-analysis, imaging and a detailed patient history. This costs a lot of time before a diagnosis can be made and delays the treatment. 

Using this device, the scientists spilled menstrual blood over the borophene strip having varying amounts of HMGB1; they found the testing tool could detect it at even very low concentrations.

As per studies, HMGB1 is closely associated with cellular damage as its leakage into the extracellular space indicates inflammation, cellular stress or hypoxia (deprived of oxygen).

These findings can immediately alert the attending doctor and fasten the process of making a diagnosis.