Isothermal amplification methods for point-of-care veterinary molecular diagnostics: proof of concept

该项目旨在利用等温扩增技术和样本收集技术的进步，结合温度敏感脂质体技术，在兽医机构（包括诊所、农场和屠宰场）证明即时护理（POC）分子诊断能力的概念。目前，动物分子诊断在很大程度上依赖于在集中的专业实验室进行的基于聚合酶链反应的检测。样本收集和分子诊断之间的时间通常是几天。这一时间差可以减少到1小时以内，同时保留或提高当前诊断敏感性和检测特异性的标准。这个项目的创新包括以一种聪明的方式将一组相对较新的，但经过充分研究和建立的技术进步结合起来，从而提供具有健壮性和易于完成的方法的优越测试性能。如果概念得到验证，那么这种方法就可以适用于促进在POC非常迅速地检测几乎任何具有兽医重要性的病原体。这将使兽医能够迅速实施明确的治疗，有利于动物福利，抗微生物药物耐药性问题，业主满意度和兽医实践的专业满意度。这项技术可以应用于不同的领域，包括人类健康、肉类卫生、野生动物健康监测等等。

This project seeks to make use of advances in isothermal amplification technologies and sample collection techniques, combined with temperature sensitive liposome technology to prove the concept of point-of-care (POC) molecular diagnostics capability in veterinary settings, including clinics, farms and abattoirs.Currently, molecular diagnostics for animals largely depends on PCR-based testing done at centralised specialist laboratories. The time between sample collection and molecular diagnosis is typically several days. This time lag could be reduced to less than 1 hour, while simultaneously preserving or improving on current standards of diagnostic sensitivity and test specificity. The innovation of this project includes uniting a set of relatively recent, but well-researched and established technological advances in a clever way that provides superior test performance with robustness and an easy-to-accomplish method.If the proof of concept is achieved, then this approach could be adapted to facilitate the detection of almost any pathogen of veterinary importance, very rapidly and at the POC. This would allow veterinarians to rapidly implement definitive therapy, for the benefit of animal welfare, antimicrobial resistance issues, owner satisfaction, and professional satisfaction in veterinary practice. The technology could find applications in diverse sectors including human health, meat hygiene, wildlife health monitoring and many more.