Nucleic-acid testing, new platforms and nanotechnology for point-of-decision diagnosis of animal pathogens

Effect of green GO/Au nanocomposite on in-vitro amplification of human DNA

Recently nanomaterials have attracted interest for increasing efficiency of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) systems. Here, the authors report on the usefulness of green graphene oxide/gold (GO/Au) nanocomposites for enhancement of PCR reactions. In this study, green GO/Au nanocomposite was prepared with Matricaria chamomilla extract as reducing/capping agent for site-directed nucleation of Au^o atoms on surface of GO sheets. The as-prepared green GO/Au nanocomposites were then characterised with UV-VIS spectrophotometer and scanning electron microscopy. Later, the effect of these nanocomposites was studied on end-point and real-time PCR employed for amplification of human glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene. The results indicated that GO/Au nanocomposite can improve both end-point and real-time PCR methods at the optimum concentrations, possibly through interaction between GO/Au nanocomposite and the materials in PCR reaction, and through providing increased thermal convection by the GO surface as well as the Au nanostructures. In conclusion, it can be suggested that green GO/Au nanocomposite is a biocompatible and eco-friendly candidate as enhancer of in-vitro molecular amplification strategies.

Microfluidic-CFPA Chip for the Point-of-Care Detection of African Swine Fever Virus with a Median Time to Threshold in about 10 min

The outbreak of African swine fever has brought serious public safety problems to the world, and there is a need for reliable diagnostic tools to prevent and control the epidemic. Here, we successfully established a portable microfluidic-circular fluorescent probe-mediated isothermal nucleic acid amplification (CFPA) system for the rapid, high-throughput, accurate, and sensitive detection of African swine fever virus at point-of-care settings. This detection system has a detection limit of 10 copies/μL, good stability (C.V. < 5%), and 92.73% sensitivity, and 100% specificity when tested on 220 pig samples collected for the diagnosis of African swine fever virus, with a median time to threshold of 10.8 min. This novel integrated diagnostic tool is urgently needed and has promising applications for the monitoring and control of African swine fever epidemics worldwide and, in particular, the serious outbreak in China.

Hypereosinophilic Syndrome Complicated by Eosinophilic Myocarditis With Dramatic Response to Steroid

Introduction. Eosinophilic myocarditis is an infiltrative disease that affects the myocardium leading to various presentations. It can be precipitated by medications, helminthiasis, or hypereosinophilic syndrome. Case. We present the case of a young, male patient who presented with palpitations and dyspnea and was found to have heart failure with reduced ejection fracture of 12%. His past medical history was significant for recent lung problem treated with steroids. Based on his history and laboratory findings, he was started on intravenous steroids for treatment of eosinophilic myocarditis. Within 3 days, his ejection fracture improved to 35%. Conclusion. Given the nonspecific clinical presentations, mimicking other diseases, high index of suspicion is warranted to diagnose eosinophilic myocarditis. This is crucial as early detection and treatment with steroids can lead to a dramatic response.

Chagas Disease Diagnostic Applications: Present Knowledge and Future Steps

Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is a lifelong and debilitating illness of major significance throughout Latin America and an emergent threat to global public health. Being a neglected disease, the vast majority of Chagasic patients have limited access to proper diagnosis and treatment, and there is only a marginal investment into R&D for drug and vaccine development. In this context, identification of novel biomarkers able to transcend the current limits of diagnostic methods surfaces as a main priority in Chagas disease applied research. The expectation is that these novel biomarkers will provide reliable, reproducible and accurate results irrespective of the genetic background, infecting parasite strain, stage of disease, and clinical-associated features of Chagasic populations. In addition, they should be able to address other still unmet diagnostic needs, including early detection of congenital T. cruzi transmission, rapid assessment of treatment efficiency or failure, indication/prediction of disease progression and direct parasite typification in clinical samples. The lack of access of poor and neglected populations to essential diagnostics also stresses the necessity of developing new methods operational in point-of-care settings. In summary, emergent diagnostic tests integrating these novel and tailored tools should provide a significant impact on the effectiveness of current intervention schemes and on the clinical management of Chagasic patients. In this chapter, we discuss the present knowledge and possible future steps in Chagas disease diagnostic applications, as well as the opportunity provided by recent advances in high-throughput methods for biomarker discovery.

Microsphere integrated microfluidic disk: synergy of two techniques for rapid and ultrasensitive dengue detection

The application of microfluidic devices in diagnostic systems is well-established in contemporary research. Large specific surface area of microspheres, on the other hand, has secured an important position for their use in bioanalytical assays. Herein, we report a combination of microspheres and microfluidic disk in a unique hybrid platform for highly sensitive and selective detection of dengue virus. Surface engineered polymethacrylate microspheres with carefully designed functional groups facilitate biorecognition in a multitude manner. In order to maximize the utility of the microspheres' specific surface area in biomolecular interaction, the microfluidic disk was equipped with a micromixing system. The mixing mechanism (microballoon mixing) enhances the number of molecular encounters between spheres and target analyte by accessing the entire sample volume more effectively, which subsequently results in signal amplification. Significant reduction of incubation time along with considerable lower detection limits were the prime motivations for the integration of microspheres inside the microfluidic disk. Lengthy incubations of routine analytical assays were reduced from 2 hours to 5 minutes while developed system successfully detected a few units of dengue virus. Obtained results make this hybrid microsphere-microfluidic approach to dengue detection a promising avenue for early detection of this fatal illness.

Integrated Microfluidic Nucleic Acid Isolation, Isothermal Amplification, and Amplicon Quantification

Microfluidic components and systems for rapid (<60 min), low-cost, convenient, field-deployable sequence-specific nucleic acid-based amplification tests (NAATs) are described. A microfluidic point-of-care (POC) diagnostics test to quantify HIV viral load from blood samples serves as a representative and instructive example to discuss the technical issues and capabilities of “lab on a chip” NAAT devices. A portable, miniaturized POC NAAT with performance comparable to conventional PCR (polymerase-chain reaction)-based tests in clinical laboratories can be realized with a disposable, palm-sized, plastic microfluidic chip in which: (1) nucleic acids (NAs) are extracted from relatively large (~mL) volume sample lysates using an embedded porous silica glass fiber or cellulose binding phase (“membrane”) to capture sample NAs in a flow-through, filtration mode; (2) NAs captured on the membrane are isothermally (~65 °C) amplified; (3) amplicon production is monitored by real-time fluorescence detection, such as with a smartphone CCD camera serving as a low-cost detector; and (4) paraffin-encapsulated, lyophilized reagents for temperature-activated release are pre-stored in the chip. Limits of Detection (LOD) better than 10³ virons/sample can be achieved. A modified chip with conduits hosting a diffusion-mode amplification process provides a simple visual indicator to readily quantify sample NA template. In addition, a companion microfluidic device for extracting plasma from whole blood without a centrifuge, generating cell-free plasma for chip-based molecular diagnostics, is described. Extensions to a myriad of related applications including, for example, food testing, cancer screening, and insect genotyping are briefly surveyed.

Standing of nucleic acid testing strategies in veterinary diagnosis laboratories to uncover Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex members

Nucleic acid testing (NAT) designate any molecular approach used for the detection, identification, and characterization of pathogenic microorganisms, enabling the rapid, specific, and sensitive diagnostic of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis. These assays have been widely used since the 90s of the last century in human clinical laboratories and, subsequently, also in veterinary diagnostics. Most NAT strategies are based in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and its several enhancements and variations. From the conventional PCR, real-time PCR and its combinations, isothermal DNA amplification, to the nanotechnologies, here we review how the NAT assays have been applied to decipher if and which member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex is present in a clinical sample. Recent advances in DNA sequencing also brought new challenges and have made possible to generate rapidly and at a low cost, large amounts of sequence data. This revolution with the high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies makes whole genome sequencing (WGS) and metagenomics the trendiest NAT strategies, today. The ranking of NAT techniques in the field of clinical diagnostics is rising, and we provide a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis with our view of the use of molecular diagnostics for detecting tuberculosis in veterinary laboratories, notwithstanding the gold standard being still the classical culture of the agent. The complementary use of both classical and molecular diagnostics approaches is recommended to speed the diagnostic, enabling a fast decision by competent authorities and rapid tackling of the disease.