Sandia sensor system can track antibiotic levels in real time
桑迪感器置能即追抗生素水平
Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, bacteria have evolved numerous ways to evade or outright ignore the effects of antibiotics. Thankfully, healthcare providers have an arsenal of infrequently used antibiotics that are still effective against otherwise resistant strains of bacteria.
打1928年青素以，菌已演化出多方式，逃避或完全忽抗生素功效。幸的是，保健提供者有不常被使用，其他抗性菌株，仍然有效的抗生素武。
1. 美桑迪家室博士後研究，Alex Downs一具有微的可穿戴橡皮，放在微下。桑迪研究人已合了，早期微微的研究奈米感器，造出一能持抗生素道‘最後防’水平的可穿戴感器片。
Sandia National Laboratories postdoctoral fellow Alex Downs places a wearable puck with microneedles under a microscope. Sandia researchers have combined earlier work on minimally invasive microneedles with nanoscale sensors to create a wearable sensor patch capable of continuously monitoring the levels of a ‘last line of defense’ antibiotic.
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have combined earlier work on painless microneedles with nanoscale sensors to create a wearable sensor patch capable of continuously monitoring the levels of one of these antibiotics.
美桑迪家室的研究人已合了，早期痛微的研究奈米感器，造一能此些抗生素之一水平的可穿戴感器片。
The specific antibiotic they’re tracking is vancomycin, which is used as a last line of defense to treat severe bacterial infections, said Alex Downs, a Jill Hruby Fellow and project lead. Continuous monitoring is crucial for vancomycin because there is a narrow range within which it effectively kills bacteria without harming the patient, she added.
吉·赫比特研究(Jill Hruby Fellow)兼人，Alex Downs表示，她正在追的特定抗生素是，被使用作治重菌感染，最後一道防的古素。她充，持古素是至重要的。因，其不害患者，而有效死菌的很窄。
“This is a great application because it requires tight control,” said Philip Miller, a Sandia biomedical engineer who advised on the project. “In a clinical setting, how that would happen is a doctor would check on the patient on an hourly basis and request a single time-point blood measurement of vancomycin. Someone would come to draw blood, send it to the clinic and get an answer back at some later time. Our system is one way to address that delay.”
提供了意的桑迪生物工程，Philip Miller宣：「是一超乎常的用，因它需要格的控制。在床境中，那如生，是生一定要，以每小基查患者，要求古素行的血液量(想要算度量或度量比率的情，其中涉及一的)。有人抽取送往所的血液，在以後的某，得答案。我的置是一，解那延的方法。」
The researchers shared how to make these sensors and the results of their tests in a paper recently published in the scientific journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
在一篇最近表於科期刊《生物感器生物子器件》的文中，此些研究人分享了，如何造些感器及其果。
The sensor system starts with a commercially available microneedle, commonly used in insulin pens. Adam Bolotsky, a Sandia materials scientist, takes a polymer-coated gold wire about ¼ the thickness of a human hair and trims one end at an angle.
感器置以一，商上可取得，普遍被使用於胰素的微始。桑迪材料科家，Adam Bolotsky用一根，大1/4粗之聚合物的金，以一角度剪掉一端。
He then carefully inserts the gold wire into the needle, solders it to a connector and ensures it is electrically insulated. The researchers also construct reference and counter electrodes in a similar manner, using coated silver and platinum wires inside commercial microneedles, respectively.
之後，他小心翼翼地金嵌入微中，其焊接到接器上，保其上是的。此些研究人也以相似的方式，於商用微，分使用及的，建造比 (reference electrodes：是具有定且所周知的位的)及(提供向工作施加入位的助)。
These needles are then inserted into a plastic patch, the size of a silver dollar, designed by Sandia technologists Bryan Weaver and Haley Bennett. This patch includes room for nine microneedles but can be adjusted for any number desired, Downs said. On the exposed, diagonal surface of each gold wire, the researchers chemically attach the nanoscale sensors.
些微之後被嵌入一，由桑迪技家Bryan Weaver及Haley Bennett所，元大小的塑片中。Downs表示，除了能就希望的任何量整之外，此片具有容九微的空。在每根金之曝露、斜的表面上，此些研究人化性附著了奈米感器。
2. 一由桑迪家室研究人所，以微基的感器，‘最後一道防’抗生素的水平，疼痛比抽血少。
A microneedle-based sensor puck designed by Sandia National Laboratories researchers to continuously monitor the levels of a ‘last line of defense’ antibiotic with less pain than a blood draw.
The sensors, called aptamers, are strands of DNA with a surface linker on one end and an electrically sensitive chemical on the other. Downs explained that when the DNA binds to the antibiotic vancomycin, it changes its shape, bringing the electrically sensitive chemical closer to the gold surface. This movement increases the current detected by the sensor system. When the concentration of vancomycin decreases, some of the DNA returns to its original shape, which is also detected electrically.
此些被(是指特定目分子合的寡聚核酸或肽)的感器，是於一端具有表面接物，而另一端具有敏感化物的DNA股。Downs解，DNA抗生素古素合，其改形，致敏感化物更接近金表面。此移增加了，由感器置到的流。古素度降低，一些DNA恢到，上也被到的原形。
“This reversibility is useful for things like real-time measurements,” Downs said. “If you want to see the concentration of a certain chemical present in the skin or in the blood at any given time, then being able to measure increases and decreases is really important.”
Downs宣：「就像即量之事而言，可逆性是有用的。倘若想在任何指定的，查看皮或血液中存在之某化物的度，之後能量增加及少，是非常重要的。」
Downs worked with the aptamer sensor during her doctoral research and brought the knowledge with her to Sandia, where she worked to combine it with Sandia’s expertise with microneedles that can provide doctors with similar information of a blood draw with less pain.
在其博士研究期，Downs以感器行研究，之後她此知往桑迪家室。在那她致力於，其桑迪具有，能生提供具少疼痛抽血之相似知的微知相合。
“I merged my knowledge of aptamer-based sensing and real-time monitoring with the technology that Ronen Polsky and Phil Miller had developed at Sandia,” Downs said. “By integrating these two tools, we substantially miniaturized the sensing system and verified that it worked in a microneedle.”
Downs宣：「我使以基的感知，使用Ronen Polsky及Phil Miller已在桑迪之技的即相合。藉由整合工具，我可地小型化此感置，且了它在微中起作用。」
After constructing the microneedle sensors, the team tested whether a microneedle sensor could detect vancomycin in a saline solution mimicking the conditions inside the body, Downs said. Once successful, they tested the entire system, complete with reference and counter electrodes, in a much more complex solution: undiluted cow blood. The system was still able to detect vancomycin.
Downs表示，在建造些微感器後，研究了，微感器是否可能，在一模仿人件之水溶液中的古素。一成功，在一未稀的更牛血溶液中。她了，有比及的完整置。置仍然能到古素。
Then, to test if the microneedles and aptamers would work after being inserted into the skin, the researchers inserted the patch into pig skin several times, monitored the electronic signal from the patch while it was in the skin, and tested its ability to detect vancomycin.
之後，了此些微及，在被嵌入皮後，是否能起作用。此些研究人片多次嵌入皮中，了自片，於皮中的子，了其古素的能力。
“It was very uncertain if this was going to maintain a signal when you put it in the skin,” Downs said. “Each microneedle is its own individual sensing electrode. If the sensors are not forming good electrical contact, then this really wouldn’t work. That was the biggest uncertainty and something we had never tested at Sandia.”
Downs宣：「其置於皮中，是否保持信，是非常不定的。因，每一微是其自的感。倘若些感器有形成良好的接，不起作用。那是最大的不定性，且是我未曾於桑迪的重要事情。」
Since successfully testing the sensor patch system, the next step is partnering with another research group to test them in humans or other animals, Downs and Miller said. “The next big technical hurdle is proving that it works in the body for an extended amount of time,” Miller said.
Downs and Miller表示，在成功感器片置以後，下一步是另一研究合作，於人或其他物身中它。Miller宣：「下一重大技障，是明它在人中，起作用的。」
Looking ahead, a similar system with different DNA aptamers could be used to monitor cytokines, small proteins used to convey messages within the body, as well as other proteins or smaller molecules that change significantly during infections. These systems could help doctors diagnose what illness a patient has more rapidly or even assist with triage during emergency situations.
展望未，一具有不同DNA的相似置，能被使用胞激素、於被使用息的小蛋白，及在感染期生著化的其他蛋白或小分子。此些置可能有助於，生更迅速患者，罹患什疾病，或甚至在急情下，助按重急的理序。
Downs has also been studying what things in the blood and skin could “clog” up the sensors and reduce their accuracy over time. She, along with summer intern Amelia Staats, found that fibrinogen, a protein involved in blood clotting, is a key culprit in signal interference. The researchers plan to publish these findings in an upcoming paper.
Downs也一直行研究，著推移，於血液及皮中，什物“妨”些感器及降低其性。她同暑期生Amelia Staats，在信干上，一涉及血液凝固的蛋白，蛋白原是罪魁首。此些研究人，在一篇即表的文中，表些。
“This system could be used really anywhere where you’re hving large chemical changes in the body, where you want to measure those changes over time to better understand what’s happening in the body,” Downs said.
Downs宣：「上，置可能被使用於，人正有大量化化的任何地方、想要量那些推移的化以深入解，於人正生什。」
址：https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/antibiotic_sensor/
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