qPCR Microfluidics point-of-care platform for dengue diagnosis

As a result of Global climate change and fast urbanization, global outbreaks of Dengue (DENV)/ Zika(ZIKV)/Chikungunya(CHIKV) virus have the potential to occur. The most common pathway of these infections in humans is through the female Aedes mosquito vector. DENV is an exanthematous febrile disease with varied clinical manifestations and progressions . Due to similarities in symptoms between DENV and ZIKV and CHIKV, it is difficult to make a differential diagnosis, impeding appropriate, timely medical intervention. Furthermore, cross-reactivity with ZIKV, which was recently related to microcephaly, is a serious issue. In 2016, in Brazil alone, there were 4180 microcephaly cases reported instead of 163 cases, more in line with yearly expected projections , , Thus, the sooner an accurate diagnostic which differentiates DENV from the other manifestations is critical; most especially at the early stages of the infection, to have a reliable diagnosis in pregnant women. In 2016, the OMS emergency committee declared that the outbreaks and the potentially resultant neurological disorders in Brazil were an important international state of emergency in public health, as a result of the associated secondary effects; these diseases became a Global concern. This project allows developing a highly and fast Multiplex qPCR POC platform by using FASTGENE technology with a minimal amount of patient serotype. It would reduce the time of analysis (30 to 90' for a standard) and costs. Additionally, the sample preprocessing and thermalization will shorten real-time PCR amplification time and will be integrated within the microfluidic systems. This platform can result in a commercialized product whereupon a main market target would be pregnant women and people living or traveling through/from outbreak risk areas.