China News Network, Beijing, March 6th (Reporter Du Yan) The world's first nucleic acid detection chip kit for detecting six viruses in 1.5 hours was approved, reconstructing the lung structure to help clinicians quickly diagnose and accurately locate the new crown virus and humans Receptor interactions thus lay the foundation for drug development and vaccine research ... The reporter recently walked into Beijing High-Tech Innovation Center, Beijing Laboratory and other places set up at Tsinghua University to explore how scientific research teams can overcome the fields of life safety and biosecurity The core technology runs out of acceleration in the race against the virus, and provides scientific and technological "weapons" for the war "epidemic" in the state of stalemate.

Huang Guoliang, a professor at Tsinghua University School of Medicine, introduced a rapid detection of a novel coronavirus isothermal nucleic acid analysis system. Photo by China Press Agency Han Haidan

Screening for 6 high-risk viruses in 1.5 hours

In the clinical diagnosis of new coronary pneumonia, there are problems such as false negative nucleic acid detection and long waiting time for reporting results. How to achieve fast, efficient and accurate detection and diagnosis?

The Beijing Municipal Education Commission relies on the team of You Zheng, director of the Beijing laboratory for biomedical detection technology and instruments constructed by Tsinghua University, and Cheng Jing, the director of the branch office, to make great efforts to achieve major breakthroughs in instrument research and development and biological diagnosis.

Wang Bo, Ph.D. student in the Department of Precision Instrumentation, Tsinghua University, introduced a new coronavirus AI quantitative assistant diagnostic system. Photo by China Press Agency Han Haidan

The rapid detection of a new type of coronavirus constant temperature amplification nucleic acid analysis system, developed by the academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Cheng Jing, can complete the rapid screening of six types of respiratory infections with high incidence of viruses in 1.5 hours, which can effectively diagnose and diagnose pandemic influenza and new coronary pneumonia.

Huang Guoliang, a professor of Tsinghua University School of Medicine who is one of the project team leaders, said that the current conventional epoxy resin tubular polymerase chain reaction detection requires a variety of instruments in series. Most of these equipment need to be imported, at least several hundred thousand yuan ( Renminbi, the same below), as many as millions of yuan, the operation procedures are complicated, the steps are many, and each tube can be added to the sample to detect only a single person. The detection time is 3 to 5 hours, which limits the rapidity of the new crown virus. Clinical application in screening tests.

Members of Wang Xinquan's research group at the Tsinghua University Structural Biology High-Tech Innovation Center conduct related research in the laboratory. Photo by China Press Agency Han Haidan

This analysis system developed by Tsinghua University not only detects more than twice as fast, the sample reagent consumption is less than 1/20 of the conventional method, and can complete accurate medical molecular diagnosis of 150 clinical samples per day, which not only effectively reduces the multi-step operation. Human error can also reduce the risk of infection for frontline inspectors.

Huang Guoliang pointed out that all the instruments and chip kits have obtained the State Class III medical device product registration certificate from the State Food and Drug Administration on February 22, and instruments and tens of thousands of chip detection kits have been shipped to Wuhan and other countries. Cities are used for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

This result did not happen overnight. Huang Guoliang said that the development of the SASR virus rapid detection microarray chip scanning detection system was completed as early as during the SARS period in 2003, and the team further researched the core technology of precision medical detection in 2007 in order to quickly and accurately detect respiratory viruses and other pathogenic bacteria. .

"The core technology needs to be accumulated for a long time. Without technological breakthroughs, it is difficult to imagine that this time, these instruments can be developed in place and quickly applied to clinical medicine in less than a month." Huang Guoliang said that some instruments have been sent to Iran and other places support the local fight against the epidemic.

AI helps quickly diagnose new coronary pneumonia

Is it new crown pneumonia? Is it light or heavy? AI can tell patients quickly.

Researchers from a joint team of Beijing Lab, Beijing Tsinghua Changgeng Hospital and other units have developed "a new quantitative quantitative diagnosis system for coronavirus AI based on imaging and clinical information".

According to Wang Bo, a PhD student in the Department of Precision Instruments at Tsinghua University, the system is based on artificial intelligence and big data. A total of 1,612 samples were collected, including 1012 cases of new coronary pneumonia and 600 cases of negative data. The machine learns the images of new coronary pneumonia and learns tuberculosis. , Lung cancer, pneumothorax and other lung image features, so as to build a comprehensive data set to strengthen the machine learning ability.

Tsinghua University professors Wang Hongwei (left) and Wang Xinquan (right) introduced how research results can help drug development and vaccine design. Photo by China Press Agency Han Haidan

It is worth mentioning that the system has an artificial intelligence 3D reconstruction engine with independent intellectual property rights, which can automatically segment and reconstruct traditional CT medical image data into a three-dimensional stereo model and display it in real space. "Through lung reconstruction, doctors can see that artificial intelligence has helped to clearly delineate the image of inflammation areas, and provide information such as the percentage of lungs that have been invaded by inflammation and the depth of invasion, which can help doctors quickly, intuitively and accurately Analysis of lesions and surrounding tissue. "

Wang Bo said that the system can simultaneously realize three functions of intelligent image diagnosis, clinical diagnosis, and clinical classification. It has been deployed and applied in Wuhan University Zhongnan Hospital and other units, and has been donated to the designated hospital in Daejeon, South Korea through the Nanjing Municipal Government. To assist in outbreak protection there.

Scientific research boosts drug development and vaccine design

On February 18th, Wang Xinquan's group of Tsinghua University's High-Tech Innovation Center for Structural Biology and Zhang Linqi's group of medical school worked closely to accurately locate the interaction site of the new crown virus RBD and the receptor ACE2, and elucidated the new crown virus spike Structural basis and molecular mechanism of glycoprotein-mediated cell infection.

"This is of great help to the development of therapeutic antibody drugs and vaccine design." Professor Wang Xinquan of Tsinghua University said that the research results have achieved a very clear view of the interface between the new crown virus and the receptor complex at the level of atomic resolution. Understanding the mechanism by which neocoronavirus enters or infects cells has important guiding significance.

There was no wasted effort, nor did it happen by chance. The reporter learned that Wang Xinquan and Zhang Linqi's laboratories have cooperated for nearly 10 years in the molecular mechanisms of new and recurring viral infections, screening and identification of neutralizing antibodies, and vaccine development, and have accumulated rich research experience.

In the early stage, the team made a series of international cutting-edge research results on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus research. It is these research experiences and accumulation that provide them with strong support for the rapid development of new coronavirus research and important breakthroughs.

So, how long will it take for specific medicines and vaccines to target new coronary pneumonia? In response to this, Wang Xinquan said that the team's next work focus is to screen for antibodies or small molecule drugs that can prevent the combination of neocrown virus RBD and receptor ACE2 based on structural design, which is a relatively long process. (Finish)