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Another Laser tongue diagnostic

Aim ablative laser at tongue; swish fluorescent labelled antibodies; use another laser to read physiological data as a diagnostic.
 
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I think I read that about 6% of the population suffers from depression. A saliva diagnostic that could tell a physician which of three kinds of antidepressants would be most effective would greatly benefit about 120 million people (6% of 2 billion).

The three antidepressants I am thinking of are 1) deprenyl 2) wellbutrin 3) zoloft/SSRI

Being able to determine which of these the person is most likely to respond to would be an in-demand financially valuable test that relieves suffering. Also of benefit is that treating the young could create more person-years of benefit.

Use lasers to "abrade" the tongue or oral mucosa. Then, mouth-swish antibodies linked to fluorescent molecules.

I may have read that taste buds or the oral epithelium regenerates after 7 days. Aiming a laser at someone’s tongue should rapidly heal.

So, you could zap a taste bud with a laser to expose the neurons of the taste bud nerve. Then, have a different frequency of laser activate the fluorescent antibodies specific to the neuron if there were something of interest about the chemistry of the neuron for diagnostic purposes.

It is possible that the cytochemistry of a neuron (or mouth tissue in general) could be linked (correlated) to the effectiveness of antidepressant drugs or other medical things.

Using this combined approach you can develop a laser zap of tongue diagnostic which could apply to many drugs.

Another possibility is to "abrade" the oral mucosa with a laser then provide a really protein rich saliva sample with better diagnostic abilities.

beanangel, Jan 26 2018

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       Which population of 2 billion were you thinking of?
pertinax, Jan 27 2018
  

       Sadly, bad science. The current theory (insofar as there is one) regarding antidepressant effectiveness is that it relates to drug turnover, which is heavily dependent on liver functions and other factors. What is probably needed (and people are working on this) is a genetic test, which can be done using either a blood sample or a cheek swab.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 27 2018
  
      
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