Leukocyte ImmunoTest™: point-of-care test for monitoring chemotherapy-induced neutropenia

“制药公司正在继续开发新的和改进的药物和药物来对抗癌症，更多的癌症患者正在从这些所谓的“化疗”药物中受益。然而，一个关键的挑战是药物副作用的风险，称为药物不良反应（adr）。常见的不良反应也相当严重，会影响免疫系统的白细胞，降低身体抵御感染的效力（这种情况被称为“中性粒细胞减少症”）。患有严重中性粒细胞减少症的患者更容易受到细菌感染，如果不及时就医，病情可能会危及生命。为了解决这一未满足的临床需求，Oxford MediStress （OMS）最近开发了白细胞免疫试验（LIT(tm)），用于快速评估中性粒细胞（一种白细胞和免疫系统的关键方面）的功能。这种血液检测快速（仅需10分钟）、便携，并使用手持即时电子设备；它使用一小针状的血液来显示你的免疫系统的工作情况。这可以告诉医生你的身体对药物的反应如何；它可以在任何时间点快速显示这一点。重要的是，该设备最终可以开发为家庭使用（很像众所周知的家庭糖尿病测试）。最终，我们还将有一个智能手机应用程序，可以将结果直接传达给医生（但这不是这个项目的一部分）。重要的是，为了使其适合家庭使用，该设备的某些方面需要改进。在这个项目中，牛津MediStress将带领一个小团队通过开发一种新的试剂盒来改进设备，该试剂盒已经预装了必要的化学物质，这样使用起来更容易、更快捷。作为附带的好处，我们还将了解我们的测试是否以及如何用于监测其他疾病状况，以及NHS的医生如何使用这项技术来帮助患者（通过挽救生命）和医疗服务（通过降低成本和提高提供优质医疗服务的效率）。

"Drug companies are continuing to develop new and improved drugs and medications in the fight against cancer, and more cancer patients are benefiting from these so-called ""chemotherapy"" drugs. However, a key challenge is the risk of unwanted drug side effects which are called adverse drug responses (ADRs). A common ADR that is also quite severe affects the white blood cells of the immune system, reducing the effectiveness of the body to ward off infection (a condition known as ""neutropenia""). Patients with severe neutropenia are more susceptible to bacterial infection and, without prompt medical attention, the condition may become life-threatening.To address this unmet clinical need, Oxford MediStress (OMS) has recently developed the Leukocyte ImmunoTest(tm) (LIT(tm)) for rapidly assessing the function of neutrophils (a type of white blood cell and a key aspect of the immune system). This blood test is rapid (taking only ten minutes), portable, and uses a hand-held point-of-care (POC) electronic device; it uses a tiny pinprick of blood and shows how well your immune system is working. This shows the doctor how well your body is responding to you medication; it shows this quickly and at any point in time. Importantly, the device can eventually be developed for use at home (much like the well-known home diabetes test). Eventually, we will also have a smartphone-enabled app to communicate the results directly to the doctor (but that is not part of this project).Importantly, in order to make it suitable for home-use, some aspects of the device need to be improved. In this project, Oxford MediStress will lead a small team to improve the device by developing a new reagent cartridge that has the necessary chemicals already pre-loaded so that it is easier and quicker to use.As a side benefit, we will also learn whether and how our test can be used to monitor other disease conditions and how doctors in the NHS would likely use this technology to help both the patients (by saving lives) and the healthcare service (by reducing cost and making the provision of excellent healthcare more efficient)."