Design and Characterization of a Novel Blood Collection and Transportation Device for Proteomic Applications

A major hurdle for blood-based proteomic diagnostics is efficient transport of specimens from the collection site to the testing laboratory. Dried blood spots have shown utility for diagnostic applications, specifically those where red blood cell hemolysis and contamination of specimens with hemoglobin is not confounding. Conversely, applications that are sensitive to the presence of the hemoglobin subunits require blood separation, which relies on centrifugation to collect plasma/serum, and then cold-chain custody during shipping. All these factors introduce complexities and potentially increased costs. Here we report on a novel whole blood-collection device (BCD) that efficiently separates the liquid from cellular components, minimizes hemolysis in the plasma fraction, and maintains protein integrity during ambient transport. The simplicity of the design makes the device ideal for field use. Whole blood is acquired through venipuncture and applied to the device with an exact volume pipette. The BCD design was based on lateral-flow principles in which whole blood was applied to a defined area, allowing two minutes for blood absorption into the separation membrane, then closed for shipment. The diagnostic utility of the device was further demonstrated with shipments from multiple sites (n = 33) across the U.S. sent to two different centralized laboratories for analyses using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-ToF) commercial assays. Specimens showed high levels of result label concordance for the LC/MS/MS assay (Negative Predictive Value = 98%) and MALDI-ToF assay (100% result concordance). The overall goal of the device is to simplify specimen transport to the laboratory and produce clinical test results equivalent to established collection methods.