Optical sensing platform for real-time detection of zoonotic pathogens

在感染人类的所有病原体中，约60%与非人类脊椎动物共有（即人畜共患病），并且如当前COVID大流行所例示的，绝大多数人类新发和新兴传染病（EID）都是人畜共患病。虽然EID往往占据头条新闻，但地方性人畜共患病可能是全球人类健康和生计的最大负担，不仅在中低收入国家，而且在英国，例如，人畜共患病弯曲杆菌病是最常见的胃肠道感染。由于无法对活体宿主、加工和零售过程中的肉类或其他食品进行实时诊断，经常阻碍对人畜共患疾病暴发的监测和调查。该提案将通过开发一种基于功能化光纤传感平台的新型变革性技术，作为在适当组织中识别人畜共患病病原体的手段，所有这些都可以扩展到常规使用。光纤传感器是高度通用的，它是人的头发的宽度，并且可以容易地结合到针探头中，以便在现场简单、快速和低成本地使用。通过用敏感材料涂覆光纤，从光纤一端传输到另一端的光将受到存在的病原体数量的影响。改变光纤上的涂层可以检测到不同的病原体。拟议的传感平台将对全球科学、健康和福祉领域产生重大的积极影响。行业和医疗机构将成为弯曲杆菌病和柯克斯体病检测的直接受益者，目前这两种检测既缓慢又昂贵，在英国推广这项技术将使英国食品行业在国际上获得巨大的贸易优势。将该技术应用于其他疾病的潜力将产生更大的影响。

Around 60% of all pathogens infecting humans are shared with non-human vertebrates (i.e. are zoonoses) and, as exemplified by the current COVID pandemic, the vast majority of new and emerging infectious diseases (EID) of humans are zoonotic in origin. Although EID tend to grab the headlines, endemic zoonoses are probably the greatest burden on human health and livelihoods globally, not just in low and middle-income countries but also in the UK, where, for example, zoonotic campylobacteriosis is the most common gastrointestinal infection. Surveillance and investigation of outbreaks of zoonotic disease are often hampered by the inability to undertake real-time diagnostics either in the living host, in meat or other food products during processing and retail.This proposal will address the issue of inability to undertake real-time diagnostics by developing a novel, transformative technology based on functionalised optical fibre sensing platform, as a means of identifying zoonotic pathogens in appropriate tissues, all of which could be scalable to routine use. The optical fibre sensor is highly versatile, it is the width of a human hair and can be easily incorporated into a needle probe for easy, rapid and low cost use in the field. By coating the optical fibre with a sensitive material, the light transmitted from one end of the fibre to the other will be affected by the amount of pathogen present. Changing the coating on the fibre enables different pathogens to be detected.The proposed sensing platform will have a significant positive impact on global scientific, and health and well-being landscapes. Industries and healthcare organisations will be the immediate beneficiaries of campylobacteriosis and coxiellosis testing, which is currently both slow and expensive, and rolling out this technology in the UK would give UK food industries a huge trade advantage internationally. The potential to adapt the technology to other diseases will lead to even greater impact.