Elutor. hydrogel-ball biomarker capture · in development

If diagnosing heart disease required anesthesia, many cases would never be found.

Diagnosing the most common disease in dogs does require anesthesia.

Many cases are never found.

Elutor is a clinician-operated instrument in development that samples and concentrates salivary MMP-8 in the awake patient — an objective screening step that tells you which patients need a COHAT, and how soon. It is a front end for anesthetized dentistry, not a substitute for it.

The prototype, in 60 seconds

Prototype demonstration. Current device; design details subject to change during validation.

How it works

A superabsorbent hydrogel sits in a perforated housing at the end of a handheld wand. With the housing in the awake patient's mouth, the practitioner squeezes a trigger that drives a plate against the gel. Each squeeze expresses fluid into the mouth, where it mixes with saliva; each release lets the gel draw the blend back in. Binding ligands immobilized in the gel matrix capture the biomarker on every pass and hold it through the next compression.

Four or five cycles — under a minute — progressively concentrate the target, overcoming the dilution that otherwise limits salivary testing. Off the patient, the binding equilibrium is shifted to release the captured protein into solution for assay. Because compression count, force, and timing are in the practitioner's hands, sampling is standardized rather than dependent on patient cooperation.

The capture cycle: compress, mix, reabsorb, bind — repeated four to five times 1  Compress 2  Mix 3  Reabsorb 4  Bind fluid leaves the gel blends with saliva gel takes blend in ligands hold MMP-8 repeated 4–5 times, concentrating the marker each cycle
Each cycle leaves more biomarker bound in the gel. After sampling, the equilibrium is shifted to elute the captured protein for measurement.

The evidence so far

The disease burden is established.
Periodontal disease is widely cited as the most common disease of adult dogs, with studies estimating that most dogs over three years of age are affected — yet staging currently requires probing and radiography under general anesthesia, so most patients are never staged.
MMP-8 is a validated marker.
Active MMP-8 is among the best-studied salivary biomarkers of periodontitis and is already measured chairside in human dentistry.
Human assays should transfer to the dog.
Our comparative epitope analysis found 68 of 71 predicted human MMP-8 B-cell epitopes conserved in canine MMP-8 (95.8%), including the region targeted by established anti-MMP-8 reagents. (Feline MMP-8, interestingly, does not show the same conservation.) A canine-specific MMP-8 ELISA is also commercially available.
The method is patent-published.
United States non-provisional and PCT/WIPO applications are published. A second application extends the capture chemistry to additional biomarkers and conditions. Patent documentation available on request.
Canine validation is underway.
Prototype devices binding MMP-8 are being produced for a validation study in dogs. We are deliberately seeking expert scrutiny of the protocol before it is locked.

An invitation to veterinary dentistry

Where would you expect this design and approach to fail, or succeed?

The question we most need answered, by the people who know periodontal disease best, before validation begins. A few emailed sentences would be genuinely valuable; a call is welcome if you are curious. We will be happy to share patent documentation and MMP-8 epitope analysis.

Email brian@elutor.vet

Practices interested in following the validation data can ask to be kept posted.