Real-time, Low Cost, Point-of-Care Biomimetic Sensors for Pathogen Detection within Clinical Settings, exemplified against Candida auris

迫切需要对环境中发现的多重耐药真菌进行快速、廉价的护理点检测。金黄色假丝酵母于2009年在日本首次被描述。从那时起，它在每个大洲都引发了医院疫情。2019年4月，据报道，有8名英国人死于金黄色葡萄球菌感染，美国报告了587例。这是一个挑战，在临床实验室准确识别，天生对一线抗真菌药物具有抵抗力，并在患者皮肤和他们周围的环境中存活数周或数月。它是一个严重的全球健康威胁，侵袭性感染和血液感染的死亡率很高。医院的控制程序尚未被编纂，从皮肤上根除可能是有问题的。这项研究将利用金黄色葡萄球菌独特的耐盐性，以及它用来识别宿主然后逃避宿主防御系统获得感染的特定机制。我们建议使用可扩展的制造技术，如压花来制造一次性的厘米级传感元件，模拟感染部位的微观结构和化学成分。据报道，金黄色葡萄球菌能分泌几种菌丝抑制代谢产物。这些将被利用来触发酶的级联反应并引起颜色变化

There is an urgent need to develop rapid, inexpensive, point-of-care detection for the multidrug-resistant fungi found in the environment. Candida auris was first described in Japan in 2009. Since then it has caused hospital outbreaks in every continent. In April 2019, it was reported that eight Britons died from C. auris infections and 587 cases were reported in the US. It is a challenge to identify accurately in the clinical laboratory, is inherently resistant to frontline antifungals, and survives on patients' skin and in their immediate environment for weeks or months. It is a serious global health threat with a high mortality in invasive and bloodstream infections. Hospital control procedures have yet to be codified and eradication from the skin can be problematic.This research will exploit the peculiar salt-tolerance traits of C. auris and the specific mechanisms it uses to recognise a host and then evade the host's defence systems to gain infection. We propose to use scalable manufacturing techniques such as embossing to make single-use, centimetre-scale sensing elements that mimic infection sites' microstructure and chemistry. C. auris has been reported to secrete several hyphae-inhibiting metabolites. These will be exploited to trigger enzymatic cascade reactions and elicit a colour change