Point-of-care Detection of HIV Antibodies and RNA in Blood and Saliva

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The global HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to be fueled by the large number of individuals who do not know that they are infected. The CDC is supporting programs to decrease this number by encouraging more frequent testingof all age groups as well as increasing the venues for testing including the recent FDA approval of an oral HIV Screening test for anti-HIV antibodies. That said, a reactive (i.e., positive) test still requies a confirmatory test that often requires a second visit to a health professional. Additionally, ther is a seroconversion window of many weeks from the time of infection until antibodies to the virus can be detected. In this interval HIV viral loads are at their highest levels, increasing the chancefor transmission to other individuals. Over the past several years, Rheonix Inc. and NYU have been collaborating on a novel point-of-care device to simultaneously detect both anti-HIV antibodies and viral nucleic acid in less than 1 hour. Starting with a d