Periodic Reporting for period 3 - PNEUMOSIP (PNEUMOSIP)
Berichtszeitraum: 2017-11-01 bis 2019-02-28
Community acquired pneumonia (CAP), together with lower respiratory tract infections, is the fourth most common cause of death globally, mostly affecting the elderly and children under 5 years of age. Timely diagnosis of the condition, identification of its cause and selection of the treatment is fundamental to reduce loss of lives. However, current diagnostic methods are too slow and increasing antibiotic resistances make it harder to treat. As a result, the societal and economic costs caused by pneumonia cannot be mitigated
PneumoSIP is a novel solution for the problem of pneumonia, that helps doctors confirm, in less than 2 hours, the existence of the disease, identify what is causing it and provide information to better selector the treatment. Therefore, PneumoSIP provides the right information for doctors to take the best possible decisions: patients are treated faster and better and mortality is reduced. PneumoSIP also improves the efficiency of Europe’s healthcare system by allowing hospitals to do more work in less time and reducing the overall costs due to testing, hospitalization and incorrect treatment.
PneumoSIP’s main objective is to minimize loss of life due to pneumonia by providing a fast, accurate, affordable and fully automated solution. PneumoSIP can be used by a variety of healthcare professionals in most healthcare centres, thus being available for the whole society.
PneumoSIP is a novel solution for the problem of pneumonia, that helps doctors confirm, in less than 2 hours, the existence of the disease, identify what is causing it and provide information to better selector the treatment. Therefore, PneumoSIP provides the right information for doctors to take the best possible decisions: patients are treated faster and better and mortality is reduced. PneumoSIP also improves the efficiency of Europe’s healthcare system by allowing hospitals to do more work in less time and reducing the overall costs due to testing, hospitalization and incorrect treatment.
PneumoSIP’s main objective is to minimize loss of life due to pneumonia by providing a fast, accurate, affordable and fully automated solution. PneumoSIP can be used by a variety of healthcare professionals in most healthcare centres, thus being available for the whole society.
The protocols for the real-time quantitative PCR (RT qPCR) of S. pneumoniae and H. Influenzae were developed in the first period of the project and were then integrated in the thermocycler system, prior to their negration in the PneumoSIP device. An inhibition of the amplification of the protocols, when performed by the device instead of made “by hand” in laboratory settings, was observed and attributed to the presence of isopropanol coming from the extraction protocol.
A C++ custom software was developed for controlling the device and allowing to perform RT qPCR. The particularity of the system consists on the fact that any kind of data from the samples or the patients’ needs to be stored in the device, thanks to the QR codes present in the cartridges and the QR reader located in the device which confers agility to the software. Additionally, all the subsystems of the device (extraction system, thermocycler, optical detector, etc.) were designed or selected (OEM modules) and then integrated and assembled in a compact prototype. Different optimizations were performed to the device. The most important one solved the problem of the NACs amplification inhibition by implementing a new thermos-block in the extraction system for ensuring evaporation of all the isopropanol that was inhibiting the subsequent amplification step. Different tests for the extraction and amplification of NACs were performed with the device, leading to the conclusion that amplification was inhibited, then allowing for correcting this issue by optimizing the device. Additionally, we conducted different visits to hospitals were like the meeting held in the paediatric hospital “Hospital Niño Jesus” (Madrid, Spain) with the center’s biggest specialist in pneumonia. Most important commercialization and investor searching activities were the assistance to the Business Angels Harvard school in Boston (April 2017) and to the Medica trade fair (Dusseldorf, November 2017).
A C++ custom software was developed for controlling the device and allowing to perform RT qPCR. The particularity of the system consists on the fact that any kind of data from the samples or the patients’ needs to be stored in the device, thanks to the QR codes present in the cartridges and the QR reader located in the device which confers agility to the software. Additionally, all the subsystems of the device (extraction system, thermocycler, optical detector, etc.) were designed or selected (OEM modules) and then integrated and assembled in a compact prototype. Different optimizations were performed to the device. The most important one solved the problem of the NACs amplification inhibition by implementing a new thermos-block in the extraction system for ensuring evaporation of all the isopropanol that was inhibiting the subsequent amplification step. Different tests for the extraction and amplification of NACs were performed with the device, leading to the conclusion that amplification was inhibited, then allowing for correcting this issue by optimizing the device. Additionally, we conducted different visits to hospitals were like the meeting held in the paediatric hospital “Hospital Niño Jesus” (Madrid, Spain) with the center’s biggest specialist in pneumonia. Most important commercialization and investor searching activities were the assistance to the Business Angels Harvard school in Boston (April 2017) and to the Medica trade fair (Dusseldorf, November 2017).
The progress beyond the state-of-the-art is due to PneumoSIP’s three patents. Despite the protection, the applications are recent and AlphaSIP must maintain this information confidential.