Difference between revisions of "Team:CSMU Taiwan/Design"

Screening

1. Rapid screening
   1. Principle
      

      In the reagent, there are aptamers that can bind with influenza virus.
      One end of the aptamer is bond with dye, and the dye is connected with biotin.
      On the strip, there is a DNA strand which complements to the aptamer at the check point as test group, and another check point is avidin which is referred to as control group.

      The relation of biotin and avidin: Binding with high specificity and high affinity.

      1. Sample is pre-mixed with the reagent
         
      2. The principle of results:>
         
         

         Negative:
         The aptamers in the reagent will bind with the complementary DNA at the check point of test group, and the biotin will bind with the avidin at the check point of control group.
         The result of negative displays two lines because the aptamer is carried with dye.
         
         Positive:
         In the existence of influenza virus, the aptamers are bond with the virus.
         This situation leads to the configuration change of aptamers and the unbinding of complementary DNA at the check point of test group.
         However, the biotin will still bind with the avidin at the check point of control group.
         Thus, the result of positive displays only one line.
         
         
         

   2. Design
      

      There are two versions of influsensor: Easy-to-use version and Professional version
      

      	Easy-to-use version of influsensor	Professional version of influsensor
      User	Doctors in countryside or developing country	Clinics and hospitals
      Function	Rapid screening	Data uploading and precise surveillance

      Easy-to-use version
      
      
      1. There are two components on the rapid screening strip:
         

         the area for placing sample and the window for observing the result.
         

      2. There are three check points on the strip:
         

         the aptamer for detecting influenza A as test group, the aptamer for detecting influenza B as test group, and the avidin for binding with biotin as control group.
         Because of the design of control group, we can assure that the reagent flow through the whole strip.
         

      3. The outer casing of the rapid screening strip is 3D printed with green material for the protection of the Earth.
      
      

      Professional version
      
      Utilize machine to read the testing data to acquire the precise information and upload the data to the Cloud database in time.
      The professional version can achieve the greatest use of the predicting system.
      Also, the data can be submitted through the internet and process subsequently.
      

      
      

      User guide:
      ###The throat swab is specially designed to have the reagent inside the swab tube.
      After taking the sample from tonsil with the designed throat swab, doctors will

      1. Squeeze the back end of the swab for letting the reagent flow to the fore end to meet the sample on the cotton.
      2. Pipet the reagent with sample.
      3. Put the swab to the placing sample area on strip directly.

      The reagent will diffuse the reagent mixed the sample, and get the result afterwards.
      The whole process can be completed with only five minutes and the manipulation is simple.
      Later, upload the inspection data to the Cloud through the Internet and the authority concerned will assist the subsequent processing.###

   3. Characteristic
      

      Low Cost, Fast Production and Development, High Stability, Low False-negative Rate, and Animal Free.

      1. Low Cost
         

         ###Description:
         The aptamer is made of nucleic acid so that we can synthesize the sequence directly.
         However, antibodies are proteins that need cells to mediate its production. That is the reason why the cost of antibody is expensive.

         The advantage for the public health:
         With the advantage of low cost, it means we can use the aptamer rapid screening kit as a routine examination.
         When we doubt that a patient is infected by influenza, the kit can be used as a primary screening test to increase the spatial and time resolution of the data and prevent the spread of the virus under unclear clinical symptoms which are because of the differences of Individual physique.
         The huge data which include the position and time can be submitted to the database as the use of epidemic prevention.###

      2. Fast Production and Development
         

         ###Description:
         The component of the aptamer is nucleic acid so that we can synthesize the aptamer through PCR.
         However, antibodies are proteins that need the processes of cell culture, protein extraction, and protein purification.
         That is the reason why the aptamers can be produced fast.

         Aptamers are selected by the method of SELEX, so we can find out the target nucleic acid with only two weeks.
         However, if we want specific antibody, we need to inject the antigen to the mouse. After taking out the spleen, make the B cells and the tumor cells to fuse together, then we can finally start to produce the antibody. It takes about three months to get the target antibody.
         That is the reason why one of the advantages of the aptamer is fast development.

         The advantage for the public health:
         For emerging infectious disease such as Ebola, the time cost of one month may pay the price of thousands of people’s lives.###

      3. High Stability
         

         ###Description:
         The aptamer is a short DNA fragment so that it can afford the denaturation pressure of high temperature and turn back to functional structure after the ambient pressure is removed.
         However, the antibody cannot turn back to functional structures after denaturing because its structure is protein.

         The advantage for the public health:
         With high stability, the storage life of products can be extended and the amount of damage can be reduced. We can provide highly efficient medical care to the people lived in remote districts or under extraordinary circumstance.###

      4. Low False-negative Rate
         

         ###Description:
         The biggest problem of the antibody- type screening is the high false-negative rate. The high affinity of the aptamer can effectively lower the possibility of false negatives.

         The advantage for the public health:
         We can reduce the potential infectious source to suppress the prevalence of the disease and acquire the accurate information for epidemic prevention.###

      5. Animal Free
         

         ###From the paragraph of Fast Production and Development, we know that the production of antibodies is using the spleen of mouse as raw material, and it will consume a large amount of animal’s lives.
         As a medical product of the new era, when we use animals as tools for production, we should adopt the idea of animal welfare theory.
         We should use animals as experiment materials only under necessary circumstance and should ease their pain.
         Our product indeed reduce the unnecessary sacrifice of animal’s lives.
         We achieve the goal of living in harmony with the animals.###