Nut and Bolt Microfluidics with Helical Minichannel for Counting CD4+ T-Cells

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Diagnostics
• Optical Imaging

Background:

• Monitoring CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts is crucial for assessing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) progression.
• Existing point-of-care (POC) devices for CD4+ T-lymphocyte counting can be complex and bulky.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a prototype of a novel optical imaging-based POC device for HIV/AIDS progression monitoring.
• To create a portable and simplified system for accurate CD4+ T-lymphocyte detection.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Helios CD4 Analyzer, a portable system utilizing fluorescence imaging and a 3D helical minichannel sample cartridge.
• Employed a nut and bolt mechanism for simplified sample scanning along the helical channel.
• Optimized imaging parameters to enhance fluorescence detection efficiency.

Main Results:

• The Helios CD4 Analyzer demonstrated a smaller size and simpler scanning mechanism compared to conventional devices.
• Performance evaluations showed good agreement with a widely used POC CD4+ analyzer (PIMA™) for low CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts.
• The helical minichannel design facilitates absolute cell counting within a fixed sample volume.

Conclusions:

• The Helios CD4 Analyzer prototype shows promise as a compact and user-friendly POC device for HIV/AIDS management.
• The device's design offers advantages in terms of size, mechanical simplicity, and potential for accurate CD4+ T-lymphocyte quantification.
• Further validation is warranted, but initial results indicate good performance for low CD4+ counts.