Multifunctional microfluidic chip for optical nanoprobe based RNA detection – application to chronic myeloid leukemia

Alves, Pedro Urbano and Vinhas, Raquel and Fernandes, Alexandra R. and Birol, Semra Zuhal and Trabzon, Levent and Bernacka-Wojcik, Iwona and Igreja, Rui and Lopes, Paulo and Baptista, Pedro Viana and Águas, Hugo and Fortunato, Elvira and Martins, Rodrigo (2018) Multifunctional microfluidic chip for optical nanoprobe based RNA detection – application to chronic myeloid leukemia. Scientific Reports, 8. 381. ISSN 2045-2322 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-18725-9)

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Abstract

Many diseases have their treatment options narrowed and end up being fatal if detected during later stages. As a consequence, point-of-care devices have an increasing importance for routine screening applications in the health sector due to their portability, fast analyses and decreased cost. For that purpose, a multifunctional chip was developed and tested using gold nanoprobes to perform RNA optical detection inside a microfluidic chip without the need of molecular amplification steps. As a proof-of-concept, this device was used for the rapid detection of chronic myeloid leukemia, a hemato-oncological disease that would benefit from early stage diagnostics and screening tests. The chip passively mixed target RNA from samples, gold nanoprobes and saline solution to infer a result from their final colorimetric properties. An optical fiber network was used to evaluate its transmitted spectra inside the chip. Trials provided accurate output results within 3 min, yielding signal-to-noise ratios up to 9 dB. When compared to actual state-of-art screening techniques of chronic myeloid leukemia, these results were, at microscale, at least 10 times faster than the reported detection methods for chronic myeloid leukemia. Concerning point-of-care applications, this work paves the way for other new and more complex versions of optical based genosensors.

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