PERSONALIZED COVID-19 DIAGNOSTICS WITH IMMUNOPLASMONIC MICROSCOPY

此时，卫生保健系统正面临严峻挑战，需要新的和紧急的工具来处理和缓解COVID-19疫情的严重影响。在资源有限的环境和医院外，必须个性化地获得可负担得起的高质量诊断工具，以检测包括SARS-CoV-2在内的传染病。在这个项目中，我们提出了一种替代的、有前景的解决方案，用于快速临床和个性化的COVID-19诊断。所提出的装置的高效率和灵敏度是通过使用一种精心设计的成像局部表面等离子体共振（ILSPR）生物传感技术来保证的。这里的关键创新是特异性功能化专有的免疫等离子体纳米颗粒（NPs）的双重利用。由于其独特的光学和化学性质，被特定生物分子精确功能化的等离子体NPs可以作为(I)目标病毒的选择性生物标志物（即检测表达的刺突蛋白），以及（II）在我们的简化光学成像系统下易于检测和量化的光学活性标签（即我们实验室开发的暗场侧照明显微镜）。我们组织良好的研究团队，包括来自Maisonneuve-Rosemont医院的化学家、生物学家、工程师和临床生物化学家，与创新公司（Allied Scientific Medical）合作，共同努力开发一种专业的、具有成本效益的等离子体生物传感系统，用于诊断集中设施以外的患者。利用个人电子设备（即智能手机和平板电脑）的广泛分布，配备了有效的光学传感器和通信能力，所提出的ILSPR等离子体生物传感器也可以被视为手持便携式个性化诊断设备，能够在10分钟内获得准确的结果，并通过远程医疗网络将其发送给专家进行精确分析或确认。

At this time, healthcare system is facing heavy challenges requiring new and urgent tools to handle and relief severe impacts of COVID-19 outbreak. Personalized access to affordable, high-quality diagnostic tools for the detection of infectious diseases, including SARS-CoV-2, in resource-limited settings and outside the hospital environment, is imperative. In this project, we propose an alternative and promising solution for rapid clinical and personalized COVID-19 diagnosis. High efficiency and sensitivity of the proposed device is ensured by the use of an elaborated Imaging Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (ILSPR) biosensing technology. The key innovation here is the dual utilization of specifically functionalized proprietary own immunoplasmonic nanoparticles (NPs). Due to their unique optical and chemical properties, plasmonic NPs, which are precisely functionalized by specific biomolecules can perform as (I) selective biomarkers of target viruses (i.e., the detection of expressed spike proteins), and as (II) optically active tags easily detectable and quantifiable under our simplified optical imaging system (i.e., dark-field side-illumination microscopy developed in our laboratory). Our well-organized research team, including, chemists, biologists, engineers, and clinical biochemist from the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital with a collaboration of the innovation company (Allied Scientific Medical) joint their efforts to develop a professional cost-effective, plasmonic biosensing system to diagnose patients outside of centralized facilities. Taking advantage of the widespread distribution of personal electronic devices (i.e., smartphones and tablets) equipped with an effective optical sensor and communication capability, the proposed ILSPR plasmonic biosensor can also be considered as the hand-held portable personalized diagnostic device capable to obtain accurate results in less than 10 minutes and dispatches it to specialists for a precise analysis or confirmation through a telemedicine network.