Isothermal amplification methods for point-of-care veterinary molecular diagnostics: proof of concept

该项目旨在利用等温扩增技术和样品收集技术的进步，结合温度敏感脂质体技术，证明在兽医环境中（包括诊所、农场和屠宰场）的即时（POC）分子诊断能力的概念。目前，动物分子诊断主要依赖于在集中的专业实验室进行的基于PCR的检测。样本收集和分子诊断之间的时间通常是几天。该时间延迟可以减少到小于1小时，同时保持或改善诊断灵敏度和测试特异性的当前标准。该项目的创新之处在于将一系列相对较新但经过充分研究和确立的技术进步以一种巧妙的方式结合在一起，提供了具有稳健性和易于实现的上级测试性能。如果实现了概念验证，那么这种方法可以适用于非常快速和POC的几乎任何兽医重要病原体的检测。这将使兽医能够快速实施明确的治疗，有利于动物福利，抗菌素耐药性问题，业主满意度和兽医实践中的专业满意度。该技术可以应用于不同的领域，包括人类健康，肉类卫生，野生动物健康监测等等。

This project seeks to make use of advances in isothermal amplification technologies and sample collection techniques, combined with temperature sensitive liposome technology to prove the concept of point-of-care (POC) molecular diagnostics capability in veterinary settings, including clinics, farms and abattoirs.Currently, molecular diagnostics for animals largely depends on PCR-based testing done at centralised specialist laboratories. The time between sample collection and molecular diagnosis is typically several days. This time lag could be reduced to less than 1 hour, while simultaneously preserving or improving on current standards of diagnostic sensitivity and test specificity. The innovation of this project includes uniting a set of relatively recent, but well-researched and established technological advances in a clever way that provides superior test performance with robustness and an easy-to-accomplish method.If the proof of concept is achieved, then this approach could be adapted to facilitate the detection of almost any pathogen of veterinary importance, very rapidly and at the POC. This would allow veterinarians to rapidly implement definitive therapy, for the benefit of animal welfare, antimicrobial resistance issues, owner satisfaction, and professional satisfaction in veterinary practice. The technology could find applications in diverse sectors including human health, meat hygiene, wildlife health monitoring and many more.