發展電動力學微流體晶片應用於快速檢驗登革熱感染

Development of Electrokinetic Microfl uidic Biochips for Rapid Screening of Dengue Infection

登革熱是一種藉由媒蚊傳播病毒之人類傳染病，目前已在全球熱帶及亞熱帶造成嚴重疫情並導致昂貴的社會成本支出。雖然登革熱病毒主要經由媒蚊散播，近年來輸血、幹細胞和器官移植感染案例也常有報導，明確指出健康非顯性登革病毒帶原者的存在。再者時間是登革熱疾病惡化重要因子，加上初期臨床發燒症狀容易和常見感冒混淆，強化高精準登革熱診斷之快速篩檢是非常需要的。目前臨床大多以登革病毒的非結構蛋白1（NS1）作為快篩之標的，但受限於患者個體免疫反應不同、受測時的病程差異，以及現有技術限制等因素造成偽陰性結果。但更重要的是，迄今仍無法因應非顯性病症帶原者篩檢之所需。本研究發展電動力學微流體晶片應用於快速檢測登革病毒，因具有較長的可診斷週期，可避免不同病程影響而保有較佳的檢測準確性，預期可對於疫情監控及早期介入治療產生重要助益。 Dengue fever, one of the most important mosquito-borne human viral diseases, spreads over the world, especially in the tropical and subtropical countries, resulting in millions of dollars lost annually. Although the disease mainly transmits through the bite of the mosquitoes, escalating cases on blood transfusion as well as stem and organ transplantations have been reported in recent years, suggesting presence of healthy subjects with asymptomatic virus infection. The disease progression in dengue is time-dependent in addition to the initial clinical symptoms that are very similar to common fl u illness at febrile stage. Development of precision and rapid diagnostic test is therefore urgently needed. Currently, the rapid screening for viral non-structural protein 1(NS1) is a major practice in clinic. However, false-negative results are often observed due to the diverse immune response in patients, different disease stages, and insuffi cient sensitivity that is even more salient in the asymptomatic carriers. The current study develops a novel dielectrophoresis-based microfl uidic biochip for rapidly quantifying dengue virus, providing much more pragmatic approaches with precision and rapid diagnosis. Thus, it will be greatly benefi t for dengue surveillance and early therapy.