Production of Ready-to-use DNA-based Diagnostics Kit for Dengue Virus Detection

The first objective of Phase II is to validate the ready-to-use DNA-based dengue diagnostics kit under laboratory conditions using culture-derived dengue viruses as well as clinically confirmed dengue infected samples from different geographic origins. These prototype products will be developed for military and civilian settings which have ideal laboratory conditions. The second objective of Phase II is to develop a point-of-care rapid detection system for detecting dengue viruses with a ready-to-use RT-PCR kit. Such systems provide stable and convenient PCR result analysis without gel electrophoresis. This system will be useful at the non-ideal laboratory conditions and in field conditions.. This method is unique, specific, and easy to operate in a field-deployable system that can provide rapid results in a few minutes with one or two simple steps. It is considered as a very convenient point-of-care test since it does not require a sophisticated facility, equipment, and highly trained personnel to perform the assay. This system will achieve comparable results to the fluorogenic RT-PCR. When an expensive real time PCR machine is not available, this kit will provide comparable test results with a low priced conventional PCR machine.