Rapid Screening for Infectious Diseases Using Paper-Analytic Devices
Charles Henry,
Professor and Chair,
Colorado State University
Infectious diseases are a major threat to human and animal health worldwide, and are responsible for killing millions of people each year and costing billions of dollars in economic losses. From 1995-2008, the estimated losses from zoonotic infectious diseases was $120B. As a result, there has been a long standing interest in rapid screening tools that enable detection and even identification of bacterial and viral pathogens. Traditional microbiological methods rely on culturing, which, despite being slow and time intensive, are effective for those species which can be readily cultured. Molecular techniques such as RT-PCR and ELISA have improved accuracy and speed but are rarely performed at the point of need, largely due to the need for multiple processing steps and benchtop instrumentation. We have been developing new methods for molecular detection of infectious diseases making use of recent developments in paper-based analytic devices. Multiple methods for detecting infectious diseases using paper-based devices will be presented. The first relies on detection of enzymes produced by bacteria using electrochemical paper-based analytic devices (ePADs). ePADs are attractive because they can provide high sensitivity with good selectivity using simple, portable instrumentation like handheld glucometers. Discussion will focus on detection of Salmonella and E. Coli using this approach. The second method detects viral and bacterial DNA colorimetrically using peptide nucleic acids coupled with silver nanoparticles in a simplified aggregation assay. Examples of detecting DNA from human papilloma virus, MERS, and tuberculosis will be shown.
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