Team:Rio UFRJ Brazil/Implementation
Proposed
Implementation
Implementation
Future of our project
In essence, our project is focused on serological diagnostic testing, used to detect arboviruses caused by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito:
Our team interviewed some physicians, where they were concerned about the current serological tests for ZiKV, DENV and CHKV, as the chance of cross-reaction is very high, due to the homology between these three viruses, making adequate treatment difficult. To successfully implement our project in the real world, our Ammit chimeric protein must recognize DENV serotypes in patient sera with greater specificity than current assays. If this is true, Ammit would have the potential to be used in commercial diagnostic kits such as: ELISA, lateral flow and biosensors, without the possibility of cross-reactions with other flaviviruses.
DIAGSYN
In the future, we intend to focus on using AMMIT in a biosensor to show the versatility of our proposal. For this, the Osiris Rio UFRJ team is developing a device called DiagSyn, which will consist of a biochip, which will carry out serological and molecular tests simultaneously, to differentiate Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya. The idea is that the methodology used in the Ammit project can be expanded to design other capture probes, such as those for Zika and Chikungunya. The reading and translation of these data will be developed by the team and based on Arduino programming.
Ammit is made of specific DENV epitopes and will be used as a probe antigen in serological diagnostic tests for this disease. Thus, in the detection systems that we are proposing, it will be responsible for capturing anti-Dengue antibodies that circulate in people infected with the virus.
The reading and translation of these data, from all diseases analyzed simultaneously, will be performed by a device, the DiagSyn, developed by the team and based on Arduino programming.
The signal is analyzed from the cyclic voltammetry graph generated by a potentiostat and a scheme of 3 electrodes that will undergo electrolysis, as illustrated in the following image:
Each electrode has a function. Reference electrode is a type of electrode that maintains a constant potential in relation to other electrodes. Working electrode is the one used where the analyte is deposited and oxidized. The counter electrode is where the reduction will occur.
Thus, through the redox reactions, the potentiostat will generate a cyclic voltammetry graph, as the image below exemplifies:
From it and from the peaks, we will know about the generated signal and the amount of current necessary for the oxidation and reduction of the material and the sample to occur.
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