Descripción del proyecto
Métodos de cribado en masa para pandemias
La pospandemia de coronavirus del síndrome respiratorio agudo grave de tipo 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ha puesto de manifiesto la necesidad de mejorar la preparación contra futuros brotes de microorganismos patógenos. Para contener la transmisión de microorganismos patógenos, se debe poner en práctica una estrategia de pruebas a gran escala lo antes posible y hasta que se disponga de tratamientos o vacunas. El equipo del proyecto PCR 4 ALL, financiado con fondos europeos, respalda el uso de la reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR, por sus siglas en inglés) como el método ideal de primera línea. Su objetivo es aumentar la capacidad y reducir el coste de esta técnica. La prueba de diagnóstico mediante PCR se basa en la amplificación del genoma del microorganismo patógeno y se puede diseñar con facilidad. El consorcio propone demostrar la viabilidad técnica de realizar cien mil pruebas al día y la utilidad de esta estrategia en la lucha contra las pandemias.
Objetivo
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected our health, but also our lifestyles and our economies. Given its high non-symptomatic transmissibility, to stop a pandemic-causing pathogen like SARS-CoV-2 early on its tracks without needing to resort to economy-damaging measures, would have required a mass testing strategy very early on: according to some estimates up to 10% of a nation’s population should have been tested on a daily basis to achieve this. Given the exponential growth tendency of pandemic-causing respiratory viruses, as soon as such pathogen is identified a large-scale testing campaign should immediate be deployed (a strategy adopted successfully in very densely populated areas of China). And given the long periods required to develop other pandemic-fighting strategies (i.e. such as vaccines and quick diagnostic tests), PCR-based mass testing could be the ideal front line of defense, since it can be developed in only a few weeks after decoding the genetic map of the pathogen. But although PCR testing capacity has greatly been increased worldwide, regularly testing large fractions of the population would still remain prohibitively costly with current technology.
The PCR-4-ALL consortium (combining expertise in diagnostics, high-throughput-screening, virology, disease modelling, econometrics and digital health platforms) will aim to demonstrate the technical feasibility of carrying out population-wide PCR testing by demonstrating a capacity of >10^5 tests in a single day and platform, in an extremely cost-effective manner (at least 2 orders of magnitude cheaper than currently). We will, furthermore, evaluate the effectiveness of utilizing this strategy as the main pandemic-fighting measure by assessing its ability to minimize, or even prevent, the need to implement other costly and partially ineffective measures (i.e. lockdowns and vaccination campaigns).
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthepidemiologypandemics
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusescoronaviruses
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsvaccines
- engineering and technologymedical engineeringmedical laboratory technologydiagnostic technologies
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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinador
3000 Leuven
Bélgica