Agarose-based microfluidic device for point-of-care concentration and detection of pathogen

Lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) for dengue diagnosis: Recent progress and prospect

Dengue is one of the most widespread and fatal arboviral infections in the world. Early detection of dengue virus (DENV) is essential to prevent the spread of the disease and provide an immediate response. The lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) systems are low-cost, rapid, sensitive, targeted, and straightforward detection, which is an ideal early detection candidate for point-of-care testing (POCT) in dengue-affected areas. However, current commercial LFIA kits cannot fully satisfy the sensitivity, specificity, serotype differentiation, and multiplex detection requirements. Therefore, various strategies have been applied to optimize the LFIA for DENV detection, including label material improvement, optical enhancement and novel structure design. In this review, we comprehensively presented the snapshot of dengue, the principle of LFIA, and recent progress in the LFIA optimization for dengue diagnoses. Furthermore, this review also discusses insights into the prospect of LFIA dengue diagnostic methods, such as microfluidics, multiplex design, nucleic acid-typed probes and smartphone-assisted result analysis.

Integrated Microfluidic Chip for Rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Directly from Positive Blood Cultures

Rapid and accurate antimicrobial prescriptions are critical for bloodstream infection (BSI) patients, as they can guide drug use and decrease mortality significantly. The traditional antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for BSI is time-consuming and tedious, taking 2-3 days. Avoiding lengthy monoclonal cultures and shortening the drug sensitivity incubation time are keys to accelerating the AST. Here, we introduced a bacteria separation integrated AST (BSI-AST) chip, which could extract bacteria directly from positive blood cultures (PBCs) within 10 min and quickly give susceptibility information within 3 h. The integrated chip includes a bacteria separation chamber, multiple AST chambers, and connection channels. The separator gel was first preloaded into the bacteria separation chamber, enabling the swift separation of bacteria cells from PBCs through on-chip centrifugation. Then, the bacteria suspension was distributed in the AST chambers with preloaded antibiotics through a quick vacuum-assisted aliquoting strategy. Through centrifuge-assisted on-chip enrichment, detectable growth of the phenotype under different antibiotics could be easily observed in the taper tips of AST chambers within a few hours. As a proof of concept, direct AST from artificial PBCs with Escherichia coli against 18 antibiotics was performed on the BSI-AST chip, and the whole process from bacteria extraction to AST result output was less than 3.5 h. Moreover, the integrated chip was successfully applied to the diagnosis of clinical PBCs, showing 93.3% categorical agreement with clinical standard methods. The reliable and fast pathogen characterization of the integrated chip suggested its great potential application in clinical diagnosis.

An outlook on the current challenges and opportunities in DNA data storage

Silicon is the gold standard for information storage systems. The exponential generation of digital information will exhaust the global supply of refined silicon. Therefore, investing in alternative information storage materials such as DNA has gained momentum. DNA as a memory material possesses several advantages over silicon-based data storage, including higher storage capacity, data retention, and lower operational energy. Routine DNA data storage approaches encode data into chemically synthesized nucleotide sequences. The scalability of DNA data storage depends on factors such as the cost and the generation of hazardous waste during DNA synthesis, latency of writing and reading, and limited rewriting capacity. Here, we review the current status of DNA data storage encoding, writing, storing, retrieving and reading, and discuss the technology's challenges and opportunities.

Portable and sensitive detection of cancer cells via a handheld luminometer

A simple and sensitive chemiluminescent method for portable detection of cancer cells via a handheld luminometer.

Rational Design of a User-Friendly Aptamer/Peptide-Based Device for the Detection of Staphylococcus aureus

The urgent need to develop a detection system for Staphylococcus aureus, one of the most common causes of infection, is prompting research towards novel approaches and devices, with a particular focus on point-of-care analysis. Biosensors are promising systems to achieve this aim. We coupled the selectivity and affinity of aptamers, short nucleic acids sequences able to recognize specific epitopes on bacterial surface, immobilized at high density on a nanostructured zirconium dioxide surface, with the rational design of specifically interacting fluorescent peptides to assemble an easy-to-use detection device. We show that the displacement of fluorescent peptides upon the competitive binding of S. aureus to immobilized aptamers can be detected and quantified through fluorescence loss. This approach could be also applied to the detection of other bacterial species once aptamers interacting with specific antigens will be identified, allowing the development of a platform for easy detection of a pathogen without requiring access to a healthcare environment.

Adhesive Tape Microfluidics with an Autofocusing Module That Incorporates CRISPR Interference: Applications to Long-Term Bacterial Antibiotic Studies

The ability to study bacteria at the single cell level has advanced our insights into microbial physiology and genetics in ways not attainable by studying large populations using more traditional culturing methods. To improve methods to characterize bacteria at the cellular level, we developed a new microfluidic platform that enables cells to be exposed to metabolites in a gradient of concentrations. By designing low-cost, three-dimensional devices with adhesive tapes and tailoring them for bacterial imaging, we avoided the complexities of silicon and polymeric microfabrication. The incorporation of an agarose membrane as the resting substrate, along with a temperature-controlled environmental chamber, allows the culturing of bacterial cells for over 10 h under stable growth or inhibition conditions. Incorporation of an autofocusing module helped the uninterrupted, high-resolution observation of bacteria at the single-cell and at low density population levels. We used the microfluidic platform to record morphological changes in Escherichia coli during ampicillin exposure and to quantify the minimum inhibitory concentration of the antibiotic. We further demonstrated the potential of finely-tuned, incremental gene regulation in a concentration gradient utilizing CRISPR interference (CRISPRi). These low-cost engineering tools, when implemented in combination with genetic approaches such as CRISPRi, should prove useful to uncover new genetic determinants of antibiotic susceptibility and evaluate the long-term effectiveness of antibiotics in bacterial cultures.

Lateral Flow Assay Based on Paper-Hydrogel Hybrid Material for Sensitive Point-of-Care Detection of Dengue Virus

Paper-based devices have been broadly used for the point-of-care detection of dengue viral nucleic acids due to their simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and readily observable colorimetric readout. However, their moderate sensitivity and functionality have limited their applications. Despite the above-mentioned advantages, paper substrates are lacking in their ability to control fluid flow, in contrast to the flow control enabled by polymer substrates (e.g., agarose) with readily tunable pore size and porosity. Herein, taking the benefits from both materials, the authors propose a strategy to create a hybrid substrate by incorporating agarose into the test strip to achieve flow control for optimal biomolecule interactions. As compared to the unmodified test strip, this strategy allows sensitive detection of targets with an approximately tenfold signal improvement. Additionally, the authors showcase the potential of functionality improvement by creating multiple test zones for semi-quantification of targets, suggesting that the number of visible test zones is directly proportional to the target concentration. The authors further demonstrate the potential of their proposed strategy for clinical assessment by applying it to their prototype sample-to-result test strip to sensitively and semi-quantitatively detect dengue viral RNA from the clinical blood samples. This proposed strategy holds significant promise for detecting various targets for diverse future applications.

A Review on Microfluidic Paper-Based Analytical Devices for Glucose Detection

Glucose, as an essential substance directly involved in metabolic processes, is closely related to the occurrence of various diseases such as glucose metabolism disorders and islet cell carcinoma. Therefore, it is crucial to develop sensitive, accurate, rapid, and cost effective methods for frequent and convenient detections of glucose. Microfluidic Paper-based Analytical Devices (μPADs) not only satisfying the above requirements but also occupying the advantages of portability and minimal sample consumption, have exhibited great potential in the field of glucose detection. This article reviews and summarizes the most recent improvements in glucose detection in two aspects of colorimetric and electrochemical μPADs. The progressive techniques for fabricating channels on μPADs are also emphasized in this article. With the growth of diabetes and other glucose indication diseases in the underdeveloped and developing countries, low-cost and reliably commercial μPADs for glucose detection will be in unprecedentedly demand.

Combined Dielectrophoresis and Impedance Systems for Bacteria Analysis in Microfluidic On-Chip Platforms

Bacteria concentration and detection is time-consuming in regular microbiology procedures aimed to facilitate the detection and analysis of these cells at very low concentrations. Traditional methods are effective but often require several days to complete. This scenario results in low bioanalytical and diagnostic methodologies with associated increased costs and complexity. In recent years, the exploitation of the intrinsic electrical properties of cells has emerged as an appealing alternative approach for concentrating and detecting bacteria. The combination of dielectrophoresis (DEP) and impedance analysis (IA) in microfluidic on-chip platforms could be key to develop rapid, accurate, portable, simple-to-use and cost-effective microfluidic devices with a promising impact in medicine, public health, agricultural, food control and environmental areas. The present document reviews recent DEP and IA combined approaches and the latest relevant improvements focusing on bacteria concentration and detection, including selectivity, sensitivity, detection time, and conductivity variation enhancements. Furthermore, this review analyses future trends and challenges which need to be addressed in order to successfully commercialize these platforms resulting in an adequate social return of public-funded investments.

Advances in microfluidics in combating infectious diseases

One of the important pursuits in science and engineering research today is to develop low-cost and user-friendly technologies to improve the health of people. Over the past decade, research efforts in microfluidics have been made to develop methods that can facilitate low-cost diagnosis of infectious diseases, especially in resource-poor settings. Here, we provide an overview of the recent advances in microfluidic devices for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics for infectious diseases and emphasis is placed on malaria, sepsis and AIDS/HIV. Other infectious diseases such as SARS, tuberculosis, and dengue are also briefly discussed. These infectious diseases are chosen as they contribute the most to disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The current state of research in this area is evaluated and projection toward future applications and accompanying challenges are also discussed.

Plasma nanotextured polymeric lab-on-a-chip for highly efficient bacteria capture and lysis

We describe the design, fabrication, and successful demonstration of a sample preparation module comprising bacteria cell capture and thermal lysis on-chip with potential applications in food sample pathogen analysis. Plasma nanotexturing of the polymeric substrate allows increase of the surface area of the chip and the antibody binding capacity. Three different anti-Salmonella antibodies were directly and covalently linked to plasma treated chips without any additional linker chemistry or other treatment. Then, the Ab-modified chips were tested for their capacity to bind bacteria in the concentration range of 10(2)-10(8) cells per mL; the module exhibited 100% efficiency in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium bacteria capture for cell suspensions below 10(5) cells per mL (10(4) cells injected with a 100 μL sample volume) and efficiency higher than 50% for 10(7) cells per mL. Moreover, thermal lysis achieved on-chip from as low as 10 captured cells was demonstrated and shown to compare well with off-chip lysis. Excellent selectivity (over 1 : 300) was obtained in a sample containing, in addition to S. Typhimurium and E. coli bacteria.