A potentiometric biosensor for rapid on-site disease diagnostics.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Veterinary Diagnostics
• Biosensor Technology

Background:

• Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) causes significant economic losses in the cattle industry.
• Current serological diagnosis relies on centralized laboratory methods like ELISA, which are time-consuming.
• Faster, on-site diagnostic tools are needed for improved disease management and treatment decisions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a quantitative point-of-care (POC) device for direct serological diagnosis of Bovine Herpes Virus-1 (BHV-1).
• To demonstrate the utility of an extended-gate field-effect transistor (FET) biosensor for rapid disease detection.

Main Methods:

• An extended-gate field-effect transistor (FET) biosensor was engineered.
• The sensor surface was functionalized with immobilized Bovine Herpes Virus-1 (BHV-1) viral protein gE as a capture antigen.
• The immunosensor's performance was assessed using anti-BHV-1 antibodies in antiserum and real cattle serum samples, with validation against Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and ELISA.

Main Results:

• The gE-coated FET immunosensor demonstrated high sensitivity and selectivity for detecting BHV-1 specific antibodies (anti-gE).
• Results from the FET sensor showed excellent agreement with established methods like SPR and ELISA.
• The FET sensor achieved diagnostic results in under 10 minutes, significantly faster than traditional ELISA.

Conclusions:

• The developed FET biosensor offers a rapid, sensitive, and selective method for point-of-care serological diagnosis of BHV-1.
• This versatile sensor technology is suitable for integration into POC devices and has potential applications for various animal and human diseases.
• The rapid detection capability of the FET sensor can significantly improve disease intervention strategies in the cattle industry.