APTERA II - Electromagnetic THz- and mm-wave Sensors for African Trypanosomes using RNA Aptamer-Derivatized Surface Layers

APTERA II - 使用 RNA 适体衍生表面层的非洲锥虫电磁太赫兹和毫米波传感器

• 批准号: 272601967
• 负责人: Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Damm
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Fachgebiet Molecular Genetics
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Priority Programmes
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2014-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/272601967?language=en
• 关键词: APTERA; II; Electromagnetic; THz; mm

The goal of our collaborative research effort is the development of an electromagnetic (EM) sensor device for the detection of African trypanosomes. Trypanosomes are single cell organisms that cause African trypanosomiasis, a parasitic disease that is also known as African sleeping sickness. If left untreated, sleeping sickness is fatal and thus, the early detection of parasite cells in the blood and/or the cerebrospinal fluid of infected patients is for health workers and clinicians crucial. As initially proposed, the EM-sensors operate in the mm- and THz-frequency region and in order to facilitate the binding of parasites to the sensory surface they are covalently functionalized with so-called aptamer molecules. Aptamers are synthetic, biomolecular affinity reagents, which in this case have been designed to specifically adhere to the surface of trypanosome cells. In the 1st funding period we were able to demonstrate the general applicability of our EM-aptasensor approach and for the 2nd funding period we now propose to use the generated data and knowledge to make the next steps towards a first prototype diagnostic device. Specifically, we intend to increase the sensitivity of the sensory surface to lower the detection limit to be able to detect even very low numbers of parasites. Furthermore, we suggest to extend our detection principle to "wet conditions" to be able to handle and measure "true" biological samples such as trypanosome-infected blood or serum specimen. The electromagnetic properties of these “wet samples” will be thoroughly characterised. We consider spoof plasmonic structures and a special system of two coupled resonators to achieve increased sensitivity and the ability to measure under wet conditions with high losses due to the water. We also propose to expand our investigation into more sophisticated aptamer-derivatized surfaces such as multifunctional and multilayered aptamer surfaces and we propose to generate aptamer/nanobody hybrid surfaces to potentially lower the detection limit even further. The proposal includes all necessary steps to demonstrate “proof-of-principle” of the EM-aptasensor approach and is intended to provide the groundwork for the design of a prototype-device for a fast, robust and low cost detection of African sleeping sickness. The construction of a first integrated chip that contains next to the aptasensor all the necessary electronic circuitry for signal generation and detection is planned as part of a cooperative effort together with Prof. Kissinger.

我们合作研究的目标是开发一种用于检测非洲锥虫的电磁(EM)传感器设备。锥虫是引起非洲锥虫病的单细胞生物体，这是一种寄生虫病，也被称为非洲昏睡病。如果不加以治疗，昏睡病是致命的，因此，早期检测感染患者血液和/或脑脊液中的寄生虫细胞对卫生工作者和临床医生至关重要。正如最初提出的，EM传感器工作在毫米和太赫兹频率区域，为了促进寄生虫与感觉表面的结合，它们与所谓的适体分子共价功能化。适配子是人工合成的生物分子亲和剂，在这种情况下，它被设计成专门附着在锥虫细胞的表面。在第一个资助期，我们能够展示我们的EM-aptasenser方法的一般适用性，在第二个资助期，我们现在建议使用生成的数据和知识来为第一个原型诊断设备采取下一步步骤。具体地说，我们打算提高感官表面的灵敏度，以降低检测下限，以便能够检测到即使是非常少量的寄生虫。此外，我们建议将我们的检测原理扩展到“潮湿条件”，以便能够处理和测量“真实”的生物样本，如锥虫感染的血液或血清样本。这些“湿样品”的电磁特性将得到彻底的描述。我们考虑了伪等离子激元结构和两个耦合谐振器的特殊系统，以实现更高的灵敏度和在潮湿条件下测量因水造成的高损失的能力。我们还建议将我们的研究扩展到更复杂的适配子衍生表面，如多功能和多层适配子表面，并建议生成适配子/纳米体混合表面以潜在地进一步降低检测下限。该提案包括所有必要的步骤，以证明EM-aptasenser方法的“原则证明”，并旨在为设计一种快速、可靠和低成本检测非洲昏睡病的原型装置奠定基础。建造第一个集成芯片的计划是与基辛格教授合作的一部分，该芯片在适配子传感器旁边包含信号产生和检测所需的所有电子电路。