Microfluidic nanotechnology for bioanalytical determination of nucleic acid molecules and medicinal compounds

对天然存在的植物，如大麻（或大麻）物种进行的生物分析测定将产生关于鉴定适当物种DNA以及提取和定量适当药用化合物的知识。 目前的知识差距是找出从适当的植物物种中获得的适当数量的此类化合物，这些化合物将产生适当的靶向药物和迷幻效果。例如，C. indica可能比C. Sativa有。知识差距将通过使用创新的微流体纳米技术来解决。 微流体纳米技术研究计划的长期目标是识别/确认适当的大麻物种，并检测/量化其适当的药用化合物。 未来五年的短期目标包括核酸检测和化学分析。对于核酸检测，一般的技术将是通过创新的微流控芯片对植物样品进行扩增检测，用于低容量液体流动，并通过金纳米颗粒进行分子或DNA检测。这种微流体生物技术能够进行分子测试，以使测试试剂盒便宜且便携，可用于现场使用。对于药物化合物的化学分析，一般的方法是分析分离，如毛细管电泳。利用创新的微流体纳米技术，我们将整合样品提取和分析分离，从而实现快速准确的药用化合物定量。 我们首次获得了基于合成生物活性化合物的酶的编码基因检测DNA的初步数据。预期的结果是确定大麻物种的核酸，并量化植物大麻素，如CBD。由于农业需求和欺诈预防，这种分子测定变得越来越重要。我们是第一个通过传统的分析分离来定量大麻中的药用化合物。我们期望通过将上游提取与下游的微流体分析分离相结合来获得更准确的定量数据。由于药物滥用预防和法律的执行需要检测试剂盒，此类测定最近变得越来越重要。 就预期的影响而言，测试包的低成本和便携性对加拿大现场最终用户来说是特别重要的特点，他们只接受了最少的培训。例如，对于土著社区来说，测试工具包是用户友好的;他们可以在现场更好地控制分析他们的植物样本，而不是在他们无法进行交叉检查的偏远实验室。当在集成微流体系统中分析时，植物样品中大麻素的生物分析测定更准确。

Bioanalytical determinations conducted on naturally occurring plants, such as Cannabis (or marijuana) species, will generate knowledge on the identification of the proper species DNA, and on the extraction and quantitation of appropriate medicinal compounds.     The current knowledge gap is to find out appropriate amounts of such compounds obtained from the proper plant species that will generate suitable targeted medicinal and psychedelic effects. For instance, C. indica may consist of more beneficial cannabidiol (CBD) than C. sativa does. The knowledge gap is to be handled by the use of the innovative microfluidic nanotechnology.     The long-term goal of the microfluidic nanotechnology research program is to identify/confirm the proper Cannabis species and detect/quantify their appropriate medicinal compounds.     The short-term objectives over the next five years include nucleic acid testing, and chemical analysis. For nucleic acid testing, the general technique will be amplification tests achieved on plant samples by innovative microfluidic chips for low-volume liquid flow and by gold nanoparticles for molecular or DNA detection. This microfluidic biotechnology enables the molecular testing in order to make the test kits inexpensive and portable for field uses. For chemical analysis of medicinal compounds, the general approach is analytical separations, such as capillary electrophoresis. Using innovative microfluidic nanotechnology, we will integrate sample extraction and analytical separation that enables fast and accurate quantification of medicinal compounds.     For the first time, we obtain preliminary data on detecting DNA based on the coding gene for the enzyme that synthesizes the bioactive compounds. The expected outcomes are to identify the nucleic acids of the Cannabis species and to quantify the plant cannabinoids, such as CBD. Such molecular assays become increasingly important because of agricultural needs and fraud prevention. We are first on quantifying the medicinal compounds in cannabis by conventional analytical separations. We expect to obtain more accurate quantification data enabled by integrating upstream extraction with the microfluidic analytical separation downstream. Such assays are gaining importance recently because of the need of test kits for substance abuse prevention and legal enforcement.     For anticipated impact, the low-cost and portability of test kits are particularly important features for Canadian end users on-site with minimal training. For instance, for the indigenous communities, the test kits are user-friendly; they can analyze their plant samples on-site with a better control, rather than in remote labs that are out of their reach for cross-examinations. The bioanalytical determinations of cannabinoids in plant samples are more accurate when analyzed in the integrated microfluidic system.