Portable thermo-photonic device for roadside detection of cannabis consumption

大麻是最常被发现的滥用毒品，对公共安全造成重大负担。例如，在大麻影响下驾驶会损害驾驶技能，在工作场所使用大麻被认为与不良事件风险增加和生产力丧失有关。随着最近世界范围内大麻合法化的变化，包括加拿大的《大麻法》（C-45号法案），迫切需要对大麻消费进行可靠的现场筛选测试。目前确定的大麻检测方法是基于实验室的技术，用于检测尿液或血液中的大麻代谢物，需要1至3小时，并且需要实验室环境；然而，现场获取尿液或血液样本的后勤工作是当前方法的主要限制。为了满足这些需求，最近提出了基于侧流免疫测定法（LFIAs；例如用于检测尿液中的妊娠激素）的口服液体大麻检测系统，甚至实现了商业化；然而，即使是最灵敏的现有LFIA系统也无法检测到法律要求浓度的大麻，在加拿大可低至2ng/ml（或在许多欧洲国家为1ng/ml）。我们的实验室最近开发了一种基于热/热特征的超灵敏热光子成像（TPI）系统，用于测量和解释LFIAs。我们对妊娠激素LFIAs的研究结果以及口服液大麻LFIAs的初步结果表明，我们正在申请专利的TPI技术可以可靠地检测浓度甚至低于法律规定的显著水平的大麻。因此，拟议项目的目标是设计、建造、评估和完善一个商业上可行的TPI原型，以便在法律要求的检测浓度低至2纳克/毫升的情况下，从口服液中可靠地检测大麻消费。该项目不仅将通过其商业化活动为加拿大经济作出贡献，而且还将通过赋予执法部门一个准确的工具来测试大麻影响下的驾驶，从而使加拿大的道路更加安全，从而为加拿大公众的利益服务。

Marijuana/Cannabis is the most frequently detected drug of abuse, imposing a significant burden on public safety. For example, driving under the influence of cannabis impairs driving skill and the use of marijuana in the workplace is believed to be correlated with increased risk of adverse events and loss of productivity. With the recent worldwide changes in the legalization of marijuana, including Cannabis Act (Bill C-45) in Canada, there is a pressing need for reliable on-site screening tests for Cannabis consumption. The current established cannabis testing methods are laboratory-based techniques for the detection of the cannabis metabolites in urine or blood which take 1 to 3 hours and require laboratory settings; however, the logistics of obtaining urine or blood samples on site represents a major limitation of current methods. In response to these needs, recently, oral fluid cannabis detection systems based on lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs; such as those used in detection of pregnancy hormones from urine) have been proposed and even commercialized; yet, even the most sensitive existing LFIA systems cannot detect Cannabis at the legally required concentrations which can be as low as 2ng/ml in Canada (or 1ng/ml in many European countries). Our laboratory has recently developed an ultrasensitive Thermo-Photonic Imaging (TPI) system for measurement and interpretation of LFIAs based on thermal/heat signatures. Our study results on pregnancy hormone LFIAs as well as preliminary results on oral fluid Cannabis LFIAs have shown that our patent-pending TPI technology can reliably detect Cannabis at concentrations even lower than what is legally considered significant. As such, the goal of the proposed project is to design, build, evaluate and refine a commercially-viable TPI prototype for reliable detection of cannabis consumption from oral fluid at legally-required detection concentrations as low as 2ng/ml. This project will not only contribute to the Canadian economy through its commercialization activities, but also will serve interests of the Canadian public by empowering law enforcement with an accurate tool to test for driving under the influence cannabis in order to make Canadian roads safer.