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Disposable platform for bacterial lysis and nucleic acid amplification based on a single USB-powered printed circuit
Kamal G Shah1, Mike Roller1, Sujatha Kumar1
1Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Plos One
|April 26, 2023
Summary
This study presents a novel, low-cost printed circuit board (PCB) integrating heaters and electronics for isothermal nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs). This innovation simplifies point-of-care diagnostics, paving the way for home-use NAAT devices.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Molecular Diagnostics
- Point-of-Care Testing
Background:
- Isothermal nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) offer point-of-care diagnostics but face challenges in cost and complexity.
- Current NAAT platforms often require multiple printed circuit boards (PCBs) and complex electronics, limiting their use in low-resource settings.
- Existing home-use electronic assays typically utilize a single PCB, indicating potential for simplification.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a generalizable strategy for integrating NAAT heaters and control electronics onto a single, low-cost PCB.
- To create a multiplexable disposable NAAT (MD NAAT) platform based on this integrated PCB design.
- To enable the translation of sophisticated NAATs for home-use diagnostics.
Main Methods:
- Designed and fabricated a single PCB incorporating both small-area heaters (for lysis/deactivation) and large-area heaters (for amplification).
- Developed a USB-powered system for controlling the integrated heaters.
- Validated heater performance through methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) lysis and isothermal nucleic acid amplification (isothermal strand displacement amplification and loop-mediated isothermal amplification).
Main Results:
- Successfully integrated all necessary heaters and control electronics onto a single, low-cost PCB.
- Demonstrated high intra-board and inter-device reproducibility for both small-area and large-area heaters.
- Validated pathogen lysis and two types of isothermal amplification (iSDA and LAMP) using the integrated platform.
Conclusions:
- Integrating NAAT heaters and control electronics onto a single PCB is a viable and effective strategy.
- This approach significantly reduces component count and cost, addressing a key barrier to NAAT translation.
- The developed MD NAAT platform represents a significant step towards accessible, home-use molecular diagnostic devices.
