New way to measure stress hormones to detect diseases early

A team of European researchers developed a sensor to take readings for up to 72 hours and detect early signs of endocrine diseases, according to a study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The authors say this new method is more accurate than existing tests taken at one point during the day.

Dysfunctional levels of stress hormones can be used to detect some diseases. These changes are now easier to detect thanks to a new wearable device developed by researchers based at the University of Birmingham and Bristol, UK, and the University of Bergen, Belgium. This is the first time doctors can follow changes in stress hormones as patients go about their normal activities over three days. The authors believe this new device has the potential to revolutionise how diseases of the stress hormone system are diagnosed and treated.

Stress hormones are crucial for life. Alterations in their rhythms could mean that diseases such as depression, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other critical illness, may be developing. However, scientists haven’t determined what normal rhythms look like in healthy daily life.

The major problem is that tests taken at a single point during the day are virtually impossible to interpret because this approach doesn’t take into account hormonal rhythms. In turn, this means delayed diagnoses for patients and missed opportunities for treatment. Up till now, the only way to understand changes in the rhythm is it takes multiple samples over a prolonged period, which is time-consuming and stressful for the patient.

To overcome this difficulty, researchers from the UK and Belgium developed U-RHYTHM. This wearable is worn around the writs and automatically takes samples every 20 minutes without the need to collect blood. Crucially, this allows sampling while the patient is sleeping, working, or carrying out normal daily activities.

To test the device, 214 healthy participants were enrolled in this study. The participants used the device over 24 hours, allowing the team to collect hormonal profiles for healthy people in real-life conditions. The authors hope this data could form the baseline to develop better ways to diagnose endocrine conditions much earlier.

“Our results represent a paradigm shift in the understanding of how the stress hormone system works in healthy people. The information we have gathered forms an entirely new reference range which has the potential to revolutionise how diseases of the stress hormone system are diagnosed and treated,” said Dr. Thomas Upton, Clinical Research Fellow in Automated Sampling at the University of Bristol and lead endocrinologist in the study.

“Our results provide significant new insights into how the stress hormone system works in healthy people and emphasises the importance of measuring change, not just sampling at single points. It also highlights the importance of measuring hormones during sleep, which has previously been impossible outside of a hospital,” added Stafford Lightman, Professor of Medicine at Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences (THS) and a co-author of the study.

“The ability to measure the dynamics of hormone secretion across the day and night in patients in their own home will not only improve our ability to accurately diagnose any abnormality in hormone secretion without the need for complex inpatient investigations but the whole diagnostic procedure can be performed from primary care and linked to newly available diagnostic algorithms. This will not only provide good, personalised medicine but will also allow the patient to follow their own hormone profiles during diagnosis and therapy and empower better patient: doctor discussions.”

Thomas J. Upton et al. (2023) High-resolution daily profiles of tissue adrenal steroids by portable automated collection.Sci. Transl. Med.15, 10.1126/scitranslmed.adg8464

In a previous life, Alex was a researcher at the University of Newcastle, UK, in the field of cell and molecular biology. After a slight change of career, Alex is now working freelance as a science writer covering anything from animal behaviour to plant genetics. She is currently living in the Highlands of Scotland and, when not working, can be found enjoying the scenery or trying to catch sight of the local wildlife.

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On 5 July 2023, a new step in the procedure for revising the European regulations that will apply to New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) was reached. This revision of the legislation