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Pulling-Force Spinning Top for Serum Separation Combined with Paper-Based Microfluidic Devices in COVID-19 ELISA
Fanwu Gong1, Hua-Xing Wei2, Ji Qi3
1Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230001, China.
Insights
A novel microfluidic platform offers a low-cost, instrument-free method for detecting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. This paper-based ELISA provides sensitive and accurate COVID-19 diagnosis, especially for early illness detection.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Immunology
- Medical Diagnostics
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, necessitates rapid and accessible diagnostic tools.
- Current nucleic acid-based tests for SARS-CoV-2 are costly and require specialized equipment.
- There is a need for improved diagnostic efficiency and portability for widespread SARS-CoV-2 detection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a cost-effective and instrument-free microfluidic platform for SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection.
- To quantitatively measure IgA, IgM, and IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.
- To enhance early illness detection through sensitive antibody profiling.
Main Methods:
- Development of a microfluidic platform integrating a pulling-force spinning top for serum collection.
- Implementation of a paper-based microfluidic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for antibody quantification.
- Validation of the platform using human blood samples for detecting SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD)-specific antibodies.
Main Results:
- The developed platform enables instrument-free, quantitative measurement of IgA/IgM/IgG antibodies.
- Paper-based microfluidic ELISA demonstrated high sensitivity (99.7%) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, outperforming traditional methods (95.6%).
- The assay is effective for early illness onset patients, indicating potential for early COVID-19 diagnosis.
Conclusions:
- A portable and efficient diagnostic solution for SARS-CoV-2 is presented.
- The integration of a spinning top and paper-based immunoassay offers an alternative for COVID-19 diagnosis.
- This approach overcomes limitations of traditional tests, improving accessibility and early detection capabilities.
Abstract:
The spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulting in a global pandemic with around four million deaths. Although there are a variety of nucleic acid-based tests for detecting SARS-CoV-2, these methods have a relatively high cost and require expensive supporting equipment. To overcome these limitations and improve the efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis, we developed a microfluidic platform that collected serum by a pulling-force spinning top and paper-based microfluidic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for quantitative IgA/IgM/IgG measurements in an instrument-free way. We further validated the paper-based microfluidic ELISA analysis of SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD)-specific IgA/IgM/IgG antibodies from human blood samples as a good measurement with higher sensitivity compared with traditional IgM/IgG detection (99.7% vs 95.6%) for early illness onset patients. In conclusion, we provide an alternative solution for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in a portable manner by this smart integration of pulling-force spinning top and paper-based microfluidic immunoassay.
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