Size-selective immunofluorescence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cells by capillary- and viscous forces

Rapid, low cost screening of tuberculosis requires an effective enrichment method of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) cells. Currently, microfiltration and centrifugation steps are frequently used for sample preparation, which are cumbersome and time-consuming. In this study, the size-selective capturing mechanism of a microtip-sensor is presented to directly enrich MTB cells from a sample mixture. When a microtip is withdrawn from a spherical suspension in the radial direction, the cells that are concentrated by AC electroosmosis are selectively enriched to the tip due to capillary- and viscous forces. The size-selectivity is characterized by using polystyrene microspheres, which is then applied to size-selective capture of MTB from a sample mixture. Our approach yields a detection limit of 800 cells mL(-1), one of the highest-sensitivity immunosensors to date.