APTERA II - Electromagnetic THz- and mm-wave Sensors for African Trypanosomes using RNA Aptamer-Derivatized Surface Layers

APTERA II - 使用 RNA 适体衍生表面层的非洲锥虫电磁太赫兹和毫米波传感器

• 批准号: 272601967
• 负责人: Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Damm
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Fachgebiet Molecular Genetics
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Priority Programmes
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2014-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/272601967?language=en
• 关键词: APTERA; II; Electromagnetic; THz; mm

The goal of our collaborative research effort is the development of an electromagnetic (EM) sensor device for the detection of African trypanosomes. Trypanosomes are single cell organisms that cause African trypanosomiasis, a parasitic disease that is also known as African sleeping sickness. If left untreated, sleeping sickness is fatal and thus, the early detection of parasite cells in the blood and/or the cerebrospinal fluid of infected patients is for health workers and clinicians crucial. As initially proposed, the EM-sensors operate in the mm- and THz-frequency region and in order to facilitate the binding of parasites to the sensory surface they are covalently functionalized with so-called aptamer molecules. Aptamers are synthetic, biomolecular affinity reagents, which in this case have been designed to specifically adhere to the surface of trypanosome cells. In the 1st funding period we were able to demonstrate the general applicability of our EM-aptasensor approach and for the 2nd funding period we now propose to use the generated data and knowledge to make the next steps towards a first prototype diagnostic device. Specifically, we intend to increase the sensitivity of the sensory surface to lower the detection limit to be able to detect even very low numbers of parasites. Furthermore, we suggest to extend our detection principle to "wet conditions" to be able to handle and measure "true" biological samples such as trypanosome-infected blood or serum specimen. The electromagnetic properties of these “wet samples” will be thoroughly characterised. We consider spoof plasmonic structures and a special system of two coupled resonators to achieve increased sensitivity and the ability to measure under wet conditions with high losses due to the water. We also propose to expand our investigation into more sophisticated aptamer-derivatized surfaces such as multifunctional and multilayered aptamer surfaces and we propose to generate aptamer/nanobody hybrid surfaces to potentially lower the detection limit even further. The proposal includes all necessary steps to demonstrate “proof-of-principle” of the EM-aptasensor approach and is intended to provide the groundwork for the design of a prototype-device for a fast, robust and low cost detection of African sleeping sickness. The construction of a first integrated chip that contains next to the aptasensor all the necessary electronic circuitry for signal generation and detection is planned as part of a cooperative effort together with Prof. Kissinger.

我们协作研究工作的目的是开发用于检测非洲锥虫病的电子（EM）传感器设备。锥虫是引起非洲锥虫病的单细胞生物，这是一种寄生疾病，也称为非洲熟睡。如果未经治疗，睡眠疾病是致命的，因此，感染患者的血液和/或脑脊液中寄生虫细胞的早期检测对于卫生工作者和临床医生至关重要。正如最初提出的那样，EM传感器在MM和THZ频率区域中运行，为了促进寄生虫与感觉表面的结合，它们与所谓的pepater分子共价功能化。 APATER是合成的，生物分子亲和力试剂，在这种情况下，该试剂旨在特别粘附在锥虫细胞的表面上。在第一个资金期间，我们能够证明我们的EM-Aptasensor方法的一般适用性，并且在第二个资金期间，我们现在建议使用生成的数据和知识来迈向第一个原型诊断设备的下一步。具体而言，我们打算提高感觉表面的敏感性，以降低检测极限，以便能够检测到很少的寄生虫。此外，我们建议将检测原理扩展到“湿条件”，以便能够处理和测量“真实”的生物学样品，例如锥虫感染的血液或血清样品。这些“湿样品”的电子特性将得到彻底表征。我们考虑欺骗塑料结构和一个由两个耦合谐振器组成的特殊系统，以提高灵敏度和在潮湿条件下以高损失而测量的能力。我们还建议将我们的投资扩展到更复杂的Apatern表面，例如多功能和多层apterner。表面和我们建议生成APATMER/NANOBODY混合表面，以进一步降低检测极限。该提案包括所有必要的步骤，以展示EM-Aptasensor方法的“原理证明”，并旨在为设计原型设备的设计提供基础，以快速，健壮且低成本的探测非洲眠病。与基辛格教授一起，计划将第一个集成芯片的构造作为合作努力的一部分，该芯片包含AptasEnsor旁边的所有必要的电子电路，以进行信号产生和检测。