Introduction
With the arrival of aging population and the change of people's lifestyle, chronic musculoskeletal pain patients are increasing. Chronic musculoskeletal pain mainly exists the problem of "one high and three low" - high prevalence, low awareness, low treatment rate and low remission rate. The treatment rate and relief rate are closely related to the classification of pain, but it is difficult to distinguish between nociceptive pain and neuropathic pain.
We aim to develop a convenient, fast and affordable POCT device. Based on synthetic biology detection methods of HCR and CRISPR, it can assist doctors in pain classification, so as to facilitate accurate diagnosis and medication.
We have formulated corresponding strategies in terms of confirming target users and application scenarios, user friendliness, project security, and promotion of the project.
Target users
Based on the above description, we have determined that our target users are patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, and doctors are directly related, because our project can assist doctors in pain classification, so as to give patients accurate diagnosis and medication.
Our project can be used in hospitals to assist doctors in pain classification. In the future, the application scenarios of our products are expected to expand to home and community hospitals, especially hospitals in underdeveloped areas. At that time, users will be able to detect by themselves or send the detection results to doctors remotely. At this time, the advantages of our POCT device will be more prominent.
Work flow
In detection, we first add the patient sample to the paper-based chip, and then put the paper-based chip on the heating instrument for HCR and CRISPR reaction. After about 60 minutes, we place the paper-based chip into the fluorescence detection module for fluorescence detection. Then, the results can be displayed on the smartphone, and it can be transmitted to the doctor's computer through Bluetooth to assist the doctor in pain classification, so that doctors can accurately diagnose and use drugs.
Advantages and challenges
What are the advantages of our project when it is applied to the real world?
(1) Specific advantages
This project makes full use of the advantages of HCR enzyme free isothermal amplification and the high specificity of CRISPR. It can detect target miRNA with high sensitivity and specificity, and effectively assist doctors in pain classification. In addition, our equipment is affordable, compact and user-friendly, which can meet the needs of pain classification and POC testing, and it is suitable for hospitals, especially in places with underdeveloped medical resources. Our equipment takes less time, which can reduce the waiting time of doctors and patients and improve the detection efficiency.
(2) Operational advantages
One of our project concepts is POCT to achieve large-scale convenient forecasting. Our hardware and software well support the biological detection. Our convenient testing equipment avoids the tedious operation of traditional methods and high requirements for professionals.
(3) Service advantages
Our project is user-friendly. From the perspective of patients, the project considers the feelings of patients from various aspects, so as to avoid invasive testing, secondary trauma, etc., better protect the privacy of patients in many aspects, and take care of their psychological feelings.
What are the challenges of applying our project to the real world?
a) Samples of miRNA come from patients' blood. If we want to use them in the real world, our equipment needs to be able to process blood. Therefore, we also expect to develop a simple miRNA automatic extraction device to extract the target miRNA from the patient's blood sample, making it a sample to answer detection platform.
b) Our device uses Bluetooth to transmit the results to the outside, but it cannot send the results remotely due to the transmission distance of Bluetooth, which will limit our application in the real world. However, we use smart phones to read the results, which overcome this problem with the help of the network.
c) In order to simplify the operation steps, we also intend to improve the automation of our POCT equipment, making it a user-friendly sample to answer detection platform based on paper-based chips.
Application safety
The biological components involved in our project include H1, H2, H3 and other different probes, miRNAs, crRNAs, etc. The experiment process does not involve any biological components or microorganisms that are harmful to people or the environment. According to the WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual, our experiment involvesⅠof risk (no or very low risk), with reliable safety.
The temperature control module of our equipment can be driven with only 5V voltage, which generates low heat and will not cause burns and other impacts on human body. The fluorescent detection module does not involve the use of special equipment and chemicals, and the paper-based chip is sealed. The whole device has reliable safety in use.