Use smartphones to detect early viral diseases from mosquitoes

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratory, in the city of Livermore, California, have developed a program that allows health workers to quickly diagnose diseases from mosquitoes like Zika, dengue, chikungunya by smartphone (smartphone).

The development team calls this product LAMP Box . Combined products include: New biochemical technology that can take samples directly, a 3D printed sample holder, phone-compatible light filter, and an application that controls the phone's camera can read the sample.

The whole system costs about $ 100, and it is possible to detect the RNA of three fever viruses in the body. The product only needs blood or urine and takes half an hour to test. In it, the 3D printed container and the phone application are the core components.

Sandia Laboratory shared that the product is an ADN amplified belt in isothermal conditions through a ring or hook structure, which is the LAMP Box.

The operation process of the product will be mixing the viral DNA with fluorescent compounds and samples, incubated in LAMP Box. DNA will find and bind it to any virus RNA in the sample. The sample will also be exposed to fluorescence and can be viewed on the phone. If the sample has a virus, the light will light up.

Laboratory pictures.(Source: Sandia Research Department).

This process of Sandia team can identify 2 or more viruses and each one will have different fluorescence brightness. That will reduce inaccurate results and make the test specimen visible on the phone.

The team shared that, with this technology, testing mosquito-borne diseases will be faster, cheaper and easier than current inspection standards. A current test system is called Polymerase chain reaction , which requires the device to cost up to $ 20,000, a stable power source and a long period of testing.

Dr. Bill B. Messer of Oregon Medical University also shared that this technology will fill technological defects in detecting viruses and where financial resources are low can still be provided. health care.

Early detection is important

Developing countries in the world are severely affected by diseases from mosquitoes like Zika, dengue fever, chikungunya fever. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - CDC (USA), nearly 2 million people have been infected with chikungunya virus in 2013, and up to 400 million people have dengue fever each year.

Also, the number of people infected with Zika is difficult to know exactly. But in the United States and some other regions, the number has reached 43,000.

All three viruses at the beginning have similar symptoms and are transmitted through a mosquito, Aedes Aegypti. Zika can also be transmitted through body fluids. Vaccines for Zika and chikungunya are still under study. Only 1 vaccine currently works for dengue. However, there is no real cure for all three viruses.

Therefore, early detection is important, can provide public health agencies the opportunity to prevent outbreaks.

Sandia Laboratories is not the only place that is developing this technology. A team of researchers from schools such as MIT, Harvard, the University of Toronto, Boston University, Arizona State University, Cornell and the University of Wisconsin have also discovered a method to detect Zika, but that is only on paper.