Point-of-Care Multiplexed Immunosuppressant Monitoring

项目摘要 大约2400万美国人需要长期的免疫抑制治疗/治疗，要么是因为 自身免疫性疾病，或者是因为他们最近接受了移植，实体器官或骨髓。免疫的目标 抑制是以最小的有效剂量来防止免疫系统对患者的 在自身免疫性疾病的情况下拥有组织，或者在移植的情况下防止器官排斥，而不需要 使患者极易受到感染。研究表明，有一个狭窄的窗口 对特定患者安全有效的血液中免疫抑制药物的治疗浓度 不幸的是，不同的患者可能需要截然不同的剂量才能达到最佳水平。 使问题进一步复杂化的是，在给药后必须以精确的时间间隔测量药物水平 解释不同患者代谢率的差异。不幸的是，目前的技术 为了测量这些药物水平，需要大量抽血，而这些抽血只有在中央实验室设施中才能获得。所以, 在实践中，免疫抑制药物监测在逻辑上是复杂和繁重的，除了 患者不方便且基本上无法接近，他们必须：1)安排交通工具到抽血诊所或 可能离家数百英里的移植中心；2)吃一剂药，等几个小时 药物进入他们的血液；和/或3)有几次这样的抽血。这一工艺对常规工艺来说是不可行的 药物监测。电子生物科学公司(EBS)建议开发一种新方法，基于最新的 用于监测免疫抑制药物的纳米孔技术的进展。它的优势在于 开发的技术是，它将像手指葡萄糖测试一样容易获得和使用。这将反过来 在医院、移植医院为这些患者提供随时可用的常规免疫抑制药物监测 中心、门诊部，甚至在家里。更频繁地监测免疫抑制药物的水平 特定的时间间隔将导致更准确的剂量，从而减少危及生命的感染 和/或器官排斥的发作。直到一种快速、简单、廉价的免疫抑制药物监测测试 如果病情恶化，患者将承受不必要的负担和风险，医生将继续蒙在鼓里。 当试图正确地给这些药物配药时。

Project Summary Approximately 24 million Americans require long-term immunosuppressive therapy/treatment, either due to an autoimmune disease or because they recently had a transplant, solid organ or bone marrow. The goal of immune suppression is to administer the minimum effective dose to prevent the immune system’s attack on the patient’s own tissue in the case of an autoimmune disease or prevent organ rejection in the case of a transplant, without leaving the patient dangerously vulnerable to infection. Research has shown there is a narrow window of therapeutic concentrations for immunosuppressive drugs in blood that is safely effective for a given patient and unfortunately, different patients can require dramatically different dosages to reach that optimal level. Complicating the matter further is the fact that drug levels must be measured at precise intervals after dosing to account for differences in the rates of metabolism from patient-to-patient. Unfortunately, the current technology for measuring these drug levels requires large blood draws that are only available in centralized lab facilities. So, in practice, immunosuppressive drug monitoring is logistically complicated and burdensome, in addition to being inconvenient and largely inaccessible for patients, who must: 1) arrange transportation to a blood draw clinic or transplant center, which may be hundreds of miles from home; 2) take a dose and wait around for hours for the drugs to enter their bloodstream; and/or 3) have several these blood draws. This process is unfeasible for routine drug monitoring. Electronic BioSciences, Inc. (EBS) proposes to develop a new method, based on the latest advances in nanopore technology, for the monitoring of immunosuppressive drugs. The advantage of the developed technology is that it will be as easy to obtain and use as a fingerstick glucose test. This will in turn enable readily available, routine immunosuppressive drug monitoring for these patients, at hospitals, transplant centers, outpatient clinics, or even at home. More frequent monitoring of immunosuppressive drug levels at specific time intervals will result in more accurate dosing, and consequently fewer life-threatening infections and/or episodes of organ rejection. Until a fast, easy, inexpensive test for immunosuppressive drug monitoring is developed, patients will be unnecessarily burdened and at risk, and doctors will continue to be in the dark when trying to correctly dose these drugs.