Current and Developing Technologies for Monitoring Agents of Bioterrorism and Biowarfare

Abstract

SUMMARY Recent events have made public health officials acutely aware of the importance of rapidly and accurately detecting acts of bioterrorism. Because bioterrorism is difficult to predict or prevent, reliable platforms to rapidly detect and identify biothreat agents are important to minimize the spread of these agents and to protect the public health. These platforms must not only be sensitive and specific, but must also be able to accurately detect a variety of pathogens, including modified or previously uncharacterized agents, directly from complex sample matrices. Various commercial tests utilizing biochemical, immunological, nucleic acid, and bioluminescence procedures are currently available to identify biological threat agents. Newer tests have also been developed to identify such agents using aptamers, biochips, evanescent wave biosensors, cantilevers, living cells, and other innovative technologies. This review describes these current and developing technologies and considers challenges to rapid, accurate detection of biothreat agents. Although there is no ideal platform, many of these technologies have proved invaluable for the detection and identification of biothreat agents.

Systems for Detection and Identification of Biological Aerosols (Review Paper)

“…The smartbio sensor (SBS) 15 by smiths detection uses an 8 sensor array and samples are stored for possible further analysis. The RAPTOR (research international, inc) is a portable, 4-channel automatized fluoroimmunoassay system for the rapid detection of protein toxin, viruses, and bakteria 27,28 .…”

“…The interim biological agent detector (IBAD) 15 is a simple semi-automated point detector system for using on a shipboard. It consists of a particle sizer/counter, particle wet cyclone sampler and a manual hand held immunochromatographic assay (HHA) identifier.…”

Comparison of multiplex polymerase chain reaction and immunoassay to detect Salmonella spp., S. Typhimurium, and S. Enteritidis in Thai chicken meat

“…The bead, when mixed with Salmonellacontaminated sample, will bind the organism on their surface via antibodies to eliminate the inhibitory effect of potential competition with other organisms. The Salmonella-bead complex can be pulled out of solution by a magnet which would concentrate the organisms left in the solution for further identification by immunoassay [26][27][28] .…”

Aptasensors for biosecurity applications

“…[1,2] Even though great strides have been achieved in the environmental surveillance of potential biothreat agents, technologies needed for fabricating efficient, portable, fieldable and highly robust biopathogen sensors largely remain. [3,4]--Many of the existing pathogen-sensing devices utilize antibodies as molecular recognition elements that mediate some signal transduction indicating the presence of the pathogen. However antibodies are limited by their structural robustness when exposed to varying temperatures and humidity and there remains an unfulfilled need in generating and producing all * To whom correspondence should be addressed.…”