Aerosol Sampling and Microfluidic Analysis of Reactive Oxygen Species

 描述（由申请人提供）：心血管疾病和哮喘影响美国1400万至1500万人，包括480万儿童;在过去15年中，其全球发病率翻了一番。哮喘每年造成1亿人/天的活动受限和5000人死亡，直接健康相关成本达81亿美元;导致哮喘上升的具体因素尚不确定。心血管疾病和慢性阻塞性肺病也被怀疑与环境暴露有关，但与哮喘一样，具体致病因素的重要性尚不确定。目前有必要进行研究，调查环境和职业颗粒污染物对人口健康的影响。遗憾的是，由于目前可用于进行此类研究的接触监测设备能力有限，妨碍了此类研究的实用性。能够对样品进行现场分析的微型接触监测装置将极大地帮助我们了解气溶胶接触与健康之间的关系。该提案涉及需要更好地对环境中的超细颗粒物进行个人暴露评估、量化和表征。一个成功的结果将导致一个分析工具，将收集空气中的纳米粒子，用于随后的原位分析，使用微流体测定。吸入颗粒的潜在毒性取决于颗粒大小和化学成分。在呼吸道内，颗粒大小决定沉积区域、停留时间、溶解度和组织吸收;颗粒的化学性质决定与组织和细胞发生生化反应的可能性。人们日益认识到，接触情况极其复杂，包括各种规模的浓度和化学性质随时间变化。暴露于复杂的环境因素，如柴油机尾气中的超细颗粒物，或家庭和职业环境中的工程纳米材料，以及对健康结果的影响需要加以研究。我们预计，这种新颖的成本效益方法使我们能够将该技术应用于许多成熟和新兴的健康研究领域，并将该技术定位于从消费品到环境监测（制药和半导体行业，HVAC和监管监测）和监控网络（军事和安全市场）的多个市场的快速增长。因此，我们将在国内和国际上积极推销我们的产品。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cardiovascular diseases and Asthma affects between 14 and 15 million people in the United States including 4.8 million children; during the past 15 years, its incidence worldwide has doubled. Asthma is responsible for 100 million person-days of restricted activity and 5000 deaths per year, amounting to $8.1 billion in direct heath related costs; there is uncertainty about the specific factors that are contributing to its rise. Cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are also suspected to be related to environmental exposures but, as with asthma, there is uncertainty about the importance of specific causative agents. There is an ongoing need to conduct studies that investigate the impact of environmental and occupational particulate contaminants on the health of the population. Unfortunately, the utility of such studies has been hampered by the limited capabilities of exposure monitoring equipment currently available to conduct such studies. Miniaturized exposure monitoring devices capable of in-situ analysis of samples would greatly help us understand the relationships between aerosol exposure and health. This proposal addresses the need for better personal exposure assessment, quantification and characterization of ultrafine particles in the environment. A successful outcome will result in an analysis tool that will collect airborne nanoparticles for subsequent in-situ analysis using a microfluidic assay. The toxic potential of inhaled particles is dependent on particle size and chemical composition. Within the respiratory tract, particle size determines the region of deposition, residence time, solubility and tissue uptake; the particle's chemistry determines the potential for biochemical reaction with tissue and cells. There is a growing awareness that exposure scenarios are extremely complex, consisting of time varying concentrations and chemistries within all size classes. Exposure to complex environmental agents, such as ultrafine particulate matter derived from diesel exhaust, or engineered nanomaterials in the households and occupational setting and the effect on the health outcome need to be examined. We anticipate that this novel cost effective approach allows us to apply this technology to many established and emerging areas of health research, as well as position this technology for rapid growth in several markets from consumer product to environmental monitoring (pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries, HVAC, and regulatory monitoring) and surveillance networks (military and security markets). Thus, we will aggressively market our product both domestically and internationally.