A new $10 flu test, developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder, can identify a flu strain within hours – providing a key tool to quickly recognize avian flu and any emerging pandemic.
CU chemists Kathy Rowlen, Rob Kuchta and colleagues at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been working for several years to build a fast and cheap genetic test to diagnose flu strains.
A quick test would help doctors know whether to send patients home to bed with tea or isolate them, administer anti-viral drugs to recent contacts and alert public health authorities.
The CU team has been frustrated by the eight gene segments of the influenza virus. Scientists needed information on several of those segments to pinpoint the precise identity of a virus.
“The breakthrough here is that we discovered we can use this single gene segment,” Rowlen said.
“It was a surprise that this single gene could provide so much information.”
Tests currently used to identify flu strains take one or two weeks, said Karen Lacourciere, the influenza program officer with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in Bethesda, Md., which helped fund the flu research.
The new test – dubbed the MChip – takes about 11 hours and is very accurate, according to peer-reviewed results published online this week in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Health officials have long sought that combination of speed and accuracy, Lacourciere said.
One strain of influenza – the infamous H5N1 bird flu – has killed at least 153 people in Asia and the Middle East, according to the CDC.
Some researchers worry that strain, or other strains, could contribute to a global flu pandemic in the near future.
In 1918, the Spanish Flu pandemic killed as many as 100 million people.
“We need good surveillance; we need subtyping information; we need a way of distinguishing routine seasonal influenza from something that might be more serious,” Lacourciere said.
“This is a step toward the type of diagnostic we’ve been looking for,” she said.
CU’s MChip is a glass microscope slide spotted with 15 segments of genetic material.
Scientists swab a patient’s nose to collect viruses, make many copies of one viral gene from the sample, and then put the genetic material on the chip.
When there is a match on the slide, a dot lights up, Rowlen said. A laser scanner analyzes the pattern of matches to determine the identity of the virus.
The new technique also could be used to improve flu-vaccine production, she said.
Every year, health officials analyze the genetics of flu viruses infecting people around the world to figure out which strains to include in a vaccine.
The conventional strain-typing process takes at least a week, limiting the number of samples health experts can assess, Rowlen said.
“This would help us keep better track of what types of influenza are moving around the country, (and) the globe,” she said.
CU’s office of technology transfer – which holds the group’s patents – is in discussions with a company seeking to purchase a licence, Rowlen said.
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com.
