A group of 10 Turkish scientists working in five different organizations in Malatya and Izmir has developed a new technological product for the diagnosis of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), marking a significant development in medicine.
The development aims to help patients with this genetic disease, as the newly developed method will reduce the diagnosis time to only 30 minutes.
The Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, with the support of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), shared details of the patent application on Monday, which is expected to be the first method ever used to quickly diagnose the disease nationally and internationally.
Familial Mediterranean fever is an inherited condition characterized by recurrent episodes of painful inflammation in the abdomen, chest or joints. It is a severe disease that usually occurs in childhood or during the teenage years. However, sometimes, the initial symptoms appear later in life.
Highlighting that the study is completely domestically run, professor Dr. Ceyhun Açarı from Malatya's Inönü University said: "FMF is one of the common genetic diseases in Türkiye. However, it's still quite hard to diagnose the disease."
Sharing the difficulties in the diagnosis of the disease as the process usually takes three to four months, Açarı noted that the prolonged procedures may lead to kidney failure in patients.
"Considering these hurdles at the diagnostic stage, we thought that a protein called pyrin could be used in the diagnosis," Açarı, who is also the lecturer at the Pediatrics Department of Pediatric Rheumatology, explained.
"The newly developed method can be accurate for over 90% of patients who remained undiagnosed for years," he pointed out.
The study will continue with different projects on a larger scale. The portable sensor device designed in the project has a "high potential to be used in hospitals and later be placed in the market for commercial use," the professor added.
Meanwhile, another doctor associated with the project, Idil Karaca Açarı, emphasized that the project's aim is to develop an alternative new diagnostic method after identifying the root cause of the disease.
"After we developed our project intellectually, we quickly headed to the writing stages of the project. During the writing phase, we created the entire project team and work packages. Later, we presented them to TÜBITAK. After the project was approved, we actively started the experimental phases of the project," she explained.
Açarı noted that the project was developed with the joint efforts of five different institutions, including four universities and an international research center. Turgut Özal University in Malatya, Inönü University, the International Biomedicine and Genome Center in Izmir, Dokuz Eylül University and Izmir Katip Çelebi University participated in the app development, she added.
"The goal was to develop an alternative new diagnostic method for FMF. For this, we used optical sensor systems," the professor said.
"Dr. Süleyman Köytepe was the one working on multi-functional chemical surface modifications so that optical sensor systems can measure different chemical processes. Meanwhile, professor Dr. Burhan Ateş conveyed the active scientific follow-up of the syntheses on antibody and antigen surface design," Açarı added.
Stressing that the project has yielded over 90% positive results while studying patients' samples, she explained that the patient samples were studied in the multidisciplinary project and in the optical sensor systems thus contributing to the success of the project.
With the development of this multidisciplinary project, we have discovered an alternative method for the diagnosis of FMF, contributing to the international and national literature, the medical professional said, adding: "We as a team are feeling immensely happy to make this development in the field of medicine," she concluded.
