Towards the Development of a Syndrome-specific Diagnostic Tool

该项目的长期目标是开发一个超灵敏的抗原检测综合平台 基于微细加工新技术的多种潜在生物恐怖物质诊断 复古反光镜。人们普遍认为，大多数恐怖袭击都是隐蔽的，因此感染源 将是未知的，直到第一个人得了重病并寻求医疗帮助。是否可以使用 能够同时检测几种病原体的仪器将大大增强我们对 可能的生物恐怖袭击，因为能够筛查出现非特定体征的患者和 症状(绝大多数)或根据症状表现进行测试的可能性。 我们已经展示了微米级反向反射器的廉价制造和非常高的可探测性， 以及金纳米颗粒和磁性颗粒(用于与样品结合)对亮度的调制 制备)以分析物响应的方式。几百个40纳米粒子，或一个2.8微米的磁粉 在大型后向反射器阵列的每个元件上可以可靠地检测到珠子，具有潜在的简单光学 价格不到1000美元。诺沃克实验室正在对立克次体和人类临床样本进行检测。 病毒和其他诺如病毒。使用磁力和/或流体剪切去除可以获得非常高的特异性 通过严格控制反射器亮度均匀度，以及通过使用共置的 参考反射器。 我们建议开发一种基于微流体的便携式、用户友好、准确和超灵敏的设备 能够并行检测多种病原体。最初的测试将集中在图拉氏方济氏菌上， 微小隐孢子虫、裂谷热病毒、诺瓦克病毒和立克次体，并将协调 与诊断主题调查人员和WRCE主题专家就这些代理进行了合作。测试将会 开始在体外使用减毒或杀伤剂，并进行动物和人类样本的测试，以及 在德克萨斯大学医学分校的BSL-3和BSL-4设施中使用毒剂。

The long term goal of this project is the development of an ultrasensitive integrated platform for the antigendetection diagnosis of multiple potential bioterror agents, based on the novel technology of microfabricated retro-reflectors. It is widely accepted that most terrorist attacks are covert, and therefore the infectious agent will be unknown until the first person becomes acutely ill and seeks medical help. The availability of an instrument capable of detecting several agents simultaneously would greatly enhance our response to a possible bioterror attack because of the ability to screen patients presenting with non-specific signs and symptoms (the vast majority) or the possibility of testing based on syndromic presentation. We have demonstrated the inexpensive fabrication and very high detectability of micron-scale retroreflectors, and brightness modulation by gold nanoparticles and magnetic particles (for integration with sample preparation) in an analyte-responsive manner. A few hundred 40 nm particles, or a single 2.8 urn magnetic bead, can be reliably detected on each element of a large retroreflector array, with simple optics potentially costing less than $1000. Testing is underway with rickettsiae and with human clinical samples for Norwalk virus and other noroviruses. Very high specificity can be achieved using magnetic and/or fluid-shear removal of non-specifically bound particles, by tight control of reflector brightness uniformity, and by the use of colocated reference reflectors. We propose development of a microfluidics-based portable, user-friendly, accurate and ultrasensitive device capable of detecting multiple pathogens in parallel. Testing will initially focus on Francisella tularensis, Cryptosporidium parvum, Rift Valley fever virus, Norwalk virus, and Rickettsia rickettsii, and will coordinate with the Diagnostics Theme investigators and WRCE subject matter experts on these agents. Testing will begin in vitro with attenuated or killed agent, and progress to testing with animal and human specimens, and with virulent agents in the University of Texas Medical Branch's BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities.