Plasmonic Optical Fibre-Based Point-of-Care Test for Periodontal MIP-1α Detection: A Validation Study of a...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Salivary diagnostics are crucial for non-invasive disease monitoring.
• Macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha (MIP-1α) is a key biomarker for periodontal disease.
• Existing diagnostic methods like ELISA can be time-consuming and require laboratory settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the analytical performance of a novel multiplexed plasmonic optical fibre-based point-of-care test (POCT).
• To compare the POCT's ability to detect and quantify salivary MIP-1α against the standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
• To assess the potential of this POCT for rapid and reliable disease monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Development of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based biosensor using modified plastic optical fibres (POFs) functionalized with anti-MIP-1α antibodies.
• Quantification of MIP-1α in serial dilutions (0.25–10 pM) to establish a dose-response curve.
• Comparison of SPR-POF sensor results with ELISA for 50 human salivary samples.
• Analysis of MIP-1α levels in relation to patient demographics and periodontitis status.

Main Results:

• The SPR-POF biosensor demonstrated a strong positive correlation with ELISA (Spearman's r_s = 0.894, P < .001).
• The SPR-POF test achieved a lower limit of detection (LoD) of 0.15 pM compared to ELISA's 0.78 pM.
• Significantly higher MIP-1α levels were observed in patients with periodontitis.

Conclusions:

• The developed 3-arm plasmonic POCT offers comparable accuracy and a lower LoD than ELISA for salivary MIP-1α detection.
• The multiplexed design enhances measurement rapidity and reliability, making it suitable for point-of-care applications.
• This novel SPR-POF prototype is valuable for future POCT development in monitoring periodontal health and disease.