Desarrollan técnicas menos invasivas para el diagnóstico del virus H1N1

Si alguna vez usted se somete a un análisis para determinar la presencia del virus H1N1 sin el empleo del doloroso pinchazo de una aguja, agradézcale a los cerdos y… a un equipo de investigadores y colaboradores de la Kansas State University quienes están relacionando la salud humana y animal

Los profesores de esa Universidad Dick Hesse and Bob Rowland –conjuntamente con Jeffrey Zimmerman, investigador asociado de la Iowa State University- están colaborando con Susan Wong, una científica en herramientas diagnósticas y de intervención para el H1N1 en el New York State Department of Health.

Mientras que Wong trabaja en el área de la salud humana, los otros científicos están enfocados en aspectos de la investigación que beneficiarán la salud animal, incluyendo la porcina.

Una de las maneras en la que el trabajo de estos científicos contacta es en un método para identificar el virus H1N1. Rowland and Hesse están trabajando en un método diagnóstico para cerdos que analiza la saliva en vez de la sangre. Zimmerman desarrolló un método de colección menos invasivo para los cerdos: los animales masticaban una soga de la cual se obtenía la saliva.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/161107.php

“Just as we are developing noninvasive techniques to collect samples from animals, it provides the New York State health lab the opportunity to develop the same oral fluids technique for humans,” Rowland said. “Using a saliva swab rather than a needle to draw blood works especially well for kids.”

The K-State researchers also contribute to the human health side by providing Wong’s lab with antigen targets and by validating test systems.

“We bring a lot to the table, but at the same time they bring a lot to us,” Rowland said. “One of the nice things is we can study the virus in pigs and get the type of reagents and samples from which to develop the tests. You can’t do that with people.”

Such benefits to human health stem from K-State’s efforts to help swine producers across Kansas. The K-Staters are developing multiplex system tests to profile swine herds and determine what’s circulating, what the antibody response is, and with that knowledge help producers make sound management decisions.

“This standardized diagnostic testing is to help the citizens of Kansas,” Hesse said. “We herd profile on the veterinary end of things, and you can consider the human population a herd you can profile as well.”

Rowland said that some of the benefits of their testing system are that it provides more information, better accuracy and should be available to producers at a less expensive price.

“This is the next generation of diagnostic tests that will replace a lot of things we’ve done in the past,” he said. “The bottom line is these producers have to be able to afford the tests we provide them,” he said.

Healthy pigs mean successful producers, Hesse said.

“At the end of the day, these diagnostics help maintain the healthy agriculture economy of the state,” Hesse said.

After diagnosing diseases in herds, the researchers said that their next goals are to help producers with surveillance and prevention.

“The same reagents we use for diagnostics are often the ones we use for vaccines, so we’re not only looking at diagnosing something, we’re always looking at the next stage,” Rowland said.

Gary Anderson, who directs the K-State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said that what sets apart Hesse, Rowland and many of their colleagues at K-State is their work at the bench nearly always translates into benefits for the field.

“These are hard-core scientists who are really interested in meeting real-world needs and taking the research from the bench to the field, and the K-State Veterinary Diagnostic Lab is doing that every single day by helping people in our state and nation.”

The importance of the K-State researchers’ efforts is magnified with diseases like the flu that humans share with other animals.

“This really gets back to the concept of one health, one medicine,” Rowland said. “Veterinary and human medicine have a lot of interaction, especially on the infectious disease side, where we look at infectious agents that may circulate in both human and animal populations.”