There is a great demand for the rapid and non-invasive
atherosclerosis screening method.
Cholesterol content in the epidermis of the skin is an early
biomarker for
atherosclerosis. Risk assessment of
atherosclerosis can be achieved by measuring
cholesterol in the epidermis. Here, we synthesised a new fluorescent
digitonin derivative (FDD) for the non-invasive detection of skin
cholesterol. The results of fluorescence spectroscopy studies indicated that the probe exhibited desirable selectivity for
cholesterol. The proof-of-concept preclinical study confirmed that FDD can detect different concentrations of skin
cholesterol; patients diagnosed with atherosclerotic
cardiovascular disease and the at-risk
atherosclerosis group exhibited higher skin
cholesterol content than the normal group. The area under the ROC curve for distinguishing the normal/disease group was 0.9228 (95% confidence interval, 0.8938 to 0.9518), and the area under the ROC curve for distinguishing the normal/risk group was 0.9422 (95% confidence interval, 0.9178 to 0.9665). We anticipate that this non-invasive skin
cholesterol test may be used as a risk assessment tool for
atherosclerosis screening in a large population for further examination and intervention in high-risk populations.