HIV dipstick for resoruce-limited blood banks

描述（由申请人提供）：根据世卫组织关于血液安全的统计数据，世界上80%的人口可获得世界上20%的安全血液供应。然而，超过20%（13，000，000单位）的世界血液供应没有检测三种主要的输血传播感染：HIV，HBV和HCV。不安全血液的输入每年造成80 000至160 000人感染艾滋病毒。如果能研制出一种廉价、快速、灵敏度可与EIA相媲美的改良试纸条用于血液筛查，将大大提高发展中国家血液供应的安全性。本项目的总体目标是研制一种高灵敏度的HIV试纸条检测方法，称为反射诊断法。在发达国家，在需要立即得出结果的情况下，可以使用该测试。对于发展中国家，我们建议将该测试整合到三重测试（HBV，HIV和HCV）中，并用作高流行率国家献血前筛查的第一步。第一阶段的具体目标是克隆和表达HIV-1跨膜糖蛋白（gp 41）、HIV-1整合酶（p-32）和HIV-2跨膜糖蛋白（gp 36）。我们打算筛选和选择免疫反应克隆，并生产毫克数量的试剂用于测试开发。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): According to WHO statistics on blood safety, 80 percent of the world's population has access to 20 percent of the world's safe blood supply. However, more than 20 percent (13,000,000 units) of the world blood supply is not tested for the three major transfusion-transmissible infections: HIV, HBV and HCV. Transfusion of unsafe blood accounts for 80,000-160,000 HIV infections each year. The problem is especially severe in resource-poor countries where the availability of safe blood clearly needs to be increased, If inexpensive, rapid, improved dipsticks with sensitivity comparable to EIA were developed for blood screening, it would greatly improve the safety of the blood supply in developing countries.The overall aim of the project is to develop an HIV dipstick assay with high sensitivity, designated as the reflex diagnostic. The test can be used in developed countries under circumstances where an immediate result is required. For the developing countries, we propose that this test be integrated into a triplex test (HBV, HIV & HCV) and used as the initial step of pre-donation screening in high prevalence countries. The associated second step is to use the HIV reflex diagnostic test in order to identify the agent responsible for the positive Triplex test result.The specific aims of Phase I are to clone and express the HIV-1 trans- membrane glycoprotein (gp4l), HIV-1 integrase (p-32) and HIV-2 trans-membrane glycoprotein (gp36). We intend to screen and select immuno-reactive clones and produce the reagents in milligram quantities for test development.