Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a condition arising from a genetic disorder of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein traversing luminal organ epithelial lining. Nasal potential difference (NPD) measurement can be used to study CF through evaluation of CFTR channel activity. Salt-bridge-based probes in combination with calomel electrodes have been used to provide discriminative information between normal and CF patients. This setup is bulky and less convenient for use in a clinical setting. Thus, we have developed a small caliber NPD probe and validated it in 3 normal subjects, providing results consisted to those reported in literature.
Since the recognition that entry factors of SARS-CoV-2 are highly expressed in the nasal epithelium, a custom personal protection booth was developed to enable intranasal µOCT studies to be safely performed on Covid-positive subjects. The booth was designed to preserve familiarity of the prior established intranasal imaging techniques used by clinicians. A group of Covid-positive subjects (n=13) were imaged, shortly after onset of symptoms (7.8 ± 3.7 days). Historical data from healthy controls (n=10) were included in the study. While the blinded analysis is underway, an interim analysis of the µOCT data revealed several notable abnormalities in the nasal epithelium including delayed mucociliary transport, epithelial injury, and high inflammatory cell count in a pilot cohort. We anticipate that the pathophysiologies captured by intranasal µOCT will provide invaluable insights to the mechanisms of Covid-19 related mucociliary dysfunction.
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