The use of microRNA expression profiling in the detection and prediction of Bovine Tuberculosis

MI：RNA有限公司是一家兽医诊断公司，拥有独特的、正在申请专利的生物标志物检测技术，我们的目标是利用我们的专业知识探索牛结核病（bTB）的早期和准确诊断。该项目建立在我们之前成功的Innovate UK资助的试验的基础上，该试验证明了我们的技术在检测早期约翰氏病（与bTB属于同一分支杆菌家族的一部分）方面的潜力。牛结核病是一种慢性消耗性疾病，对英国农业部门的经济、环境以及生产力和可持续性产生巨大影响。尽管几十年来广泛的，政策驱动的根除计划，这种应报告的疾病仍然在英格兰的许多地区流行。目前的检测方法具有灵敏度差和频繁的不确定反应（IR）的局限性，阻碍了疾病控制工作。英国可能引入bTB疫苗接种（例如BCG疫苗接种）是进一步的并发症，因为动物在接种疫苗后可能会出现假阳性。因此，改进的诊断方法将加强疾病控制，从而提高生产力，减轻经济损失，并帮助实现可持续和安全的碳中和商业模式。该项目将联合收割机MI：RNA的创新与苏格兰农村学院（SRUC）同事的研究专业知识相结合。组装的团队将与APHA，英国政府动物卫生实验室，从他们的样本和数据将来源，沿着他们的专家和经验的指导。项目阶段：第1阶段：一个定制的小组microRNA（miRNA）生物标志物将创建特定的bTB病理。这将与阴性对照和bTB阳性血清样本进行试验，以生成这些标志物的表达谱，这些标志物将通过先进的监督AI算法进行分析，生成用于检测bTB的初始建模系统。第2阶段：该阶段将使用来自先前的bTB挑战动物的APHA研究的纵向时间过程样本对模型进行优化和挑战。这将进一步完善模型，提高早期诊断的准确性。第3阶段：在这一阶段，成熟的模型将面临区分bTB疫苗接种动物和真正的bTB病例的挑战，这方面的成功将对计划中的bTB疫苗接种计划大有裨益。这些试验的结果将在同行评议的学术期刊上公开发布，并受到专利保护，并落实下一阶段的研究及发展目标。这将直接纳入我们的商业化计划，使产品能够进入市场，对英国畜牧业产生积极影响。

MI:RNA Ltd is a veterinary diagnostics company with a unique, patent-pending, biomarker testing technology and we aim to use our expertise to explore the early and accurate diagnosis of Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB).This project builds upon our previous successful Innovate UK funded trial which demonstrated the potential of our technology to detect early-stage Johne's disease, part of the same mycobacterial family as bTB. Bovine Tuberculosis is a chronic wasting disease with enormous implications economically, environmentally and in terms of productivity and sustainability for the UK farming sector. Despite decades of an extensive, policy driven eradication schemes, this notifiable disease remains prevalent in many parts of England. Current testing methods have limitations with poor sensitivity and frequent inconclusive reactors (IRs), hampering disease control efforts. The potential introduction of bTB vaccination (e.g. BCG vaccination) to the UK is a further complication, as animals can test falsely positive after vaccination. Consequently, improved diagnostics will result in enhanced disease control leading to increased productivity, mitigation of economic losses and assistance in achieving a sustainable and safe, carbon neutral business model.This project will combine MI:RNA's innovation with the research expertise of colleagues within Scotland's Rural College (SRUC). The assembled team will work with the APHA, the UK government animal health laboratory, from whom samples and data will be sourced, along with their specialist and experience guidance.Project phases:Phase 1: A bespoke panel of microRNA (miRNA) biomarkers will be created specific to bTB pathology. This will be trialled with negative control and bTB positive serum samples to generate expression profiles of these markers, which will be analysed by advanced supervised AI algorithms, generating an initial modelling system for detection of bTB.Phase 2: This phase will see the model being optimised and challenged with longitudinal time course samples from previous APHA studies of bTB challenged animals. This will allow further refinement of the model for improving early-stage diagnostic accuracy.Phase 3: This phase will see the mature model being challenged with the task of differentiating between bTB vaccinated animals and true bTB cases, success here would be hugely beneficial to planned bTB vaccination programmes.The outcomes of these trials will be released publicly in peer-reviewed academic journals and protected with patents, and we will finalise our next stage research and development objectives. This will feed directly into our commercialisation plan to make the product available to the market, positively impacting the UK livestock sector.