Novel Diagnostic Markers of Japanese Encephalitis Virus

脑感染每年影响300多万人，导致死亡、残疾和社会经济代价的比例相对较高。尽管如此，这一领域的研究在世界范围内资金不足是出了名的，管理方面存在相关缺陷，结果也不佳。具体而言，这些病例中的一个重要因素与这些患者诊断测试要求的复杂性以及许多地区缺乏实验室能力有关。老挝-牛津-Mahosot Wellcome信托基金研究单位（LOMWRU）的一个中心主题是探索这种情况下脑感染的原因，并开发低成本的诊断测试。LOMWRU的研究证实，日本脑炎病毒（JEV）是老挝脑感染的主要原因，与亚洲的其他研究一致。JEV主要影响贫困农村地区的儿童，据估计，JEV病例中有三分之一死亡，三分之一有长期残疾。在与老挝、牛津和马赛的一组研究人员的跨学科合作中，Bharucha博士的项目旨在确定JEV的诊断标志物。这将涉及无偏技术质谱分析JEV患者的脑液中的蛋白质，与其他脑部感染的患者相比。Bharucha博士将在6月至9月的JEV高峰季节在LOMWRU工作，协调样本收集，处理和储存。她将在牛津大学生物化学系Zitzmann教授的监督下度过她的大部分博士学位，发展基于蛋白质组学的质谱分析的专业技能。这将使她能够识别出与其他脑部感染患者相比对JEV具有特异性的蛋白质或肽。JEV的蛋白质特征的鉴定将使进一步的工作能够开发一种用于在现场环境中诊断JEV的简单、快速和廉价的测试。目前还没有可靠的现场测试，这对于偏远地区的临床医生，政策制定者和评估新疗法的研究人员来说是非常宝贵的。

Brain infections affect over 3 million people per year, with a relatively high proportion leading to death, disability and socioeconomic costs. Nonetheless, research in this field is notoriously under-funded worldwide, with associated deficits in management and associated poor outcomes. Specifically, an important factor in these cases relates to the complexity of requirements of diagnostic testing for these patients, and the lack of laboratory capacity in many areas.A central theme of the Laos-Oxford-Mahosot Wellcome Trust Research unit (LOMWRU) has been exploring the causes of brain infections in this setting, and developing low-cost diagnostic tests. Research at LOMWRU has confirmed that Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the leading identified cause of brain infections in Laos, consistent with other studies in Asia. JEV mainly affects children in poor rural areas, and it is estimated that one third of JEV cases die, and one third have long-term disability. In an inter-disciplinary collaboration with a group of researchers in Laos, Oxford and Marseille, Dr Bharucha's project aims to identify a diagnostic marker of JEV. This will involve the unbiased technique mass spectrometry to analyse the proteins in brain fluid in JEV patients, as compared to patients with other brain infections.Dr Bharucha will be working in LOMWRU during the peak JEV season from June to September co-ordinating sample collection, processing and storage. She will spend the bulk of her DPhil under the supervision of Professor Zitzmann at the Department of Biochemistry in Oxford, developing specialist skills in proteomics-based mass-spectrometry. This will enable her to identify proteins or peptides that are specific for JEV, in comparison to patients with other brain infections. The identification of a protein signature for JEV would enable further work to develop a simple, rapid and cheap test for diagnosing JEV in field settings. There is no existing test that is reliable for use in the field, and this would be invaluable for clinicians in remote areas, policy makers and researchers evaluating novel treatments.