Multifunctional microfluidic chip for optical nanoprobe based RNA detection - application to Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 10;8(1):381. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18725-9.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Early Detection of Cancer
  • Gold
  • Humans
  • K562 Cells
  • Lab-On-A-Chip Devices
  • Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / diagnosis*
  • Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / genetics*
  • Metal Nanoparticles
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Optical Fibers
  • Point-of-Care Systems
  • RNA / analysis*
  • Signal-To-Noise Ratio
  • THP-1 Cells

Substances

  • RNA
  • Gold