On-chip Paper Electrophoresis for Ultrafast Screening of Infectious Diseases

Abstract

The outbreak of new viral strains promotes advances in universal diagnostic techniques for detecting infectious diseases with unknown viral sequence. Long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), a hallmark of infections, serves as a virus marker for prompt detection of viruses with unknown genomes. Here, we report on-chip paper electrophoresis for ultrafast screening of infectious diseases. Negatively charged RNAs pass through the micro and nanoscale pores of cellulose in order of size under an external electric field applied to the paper microfluidic channel. Quantitative separation of long dsRNA mimicking poly I:C was analyzed from 1.67 to 33 ng·μL−1, which is close to the viral dsRNA concentration in infected cells. This paper-based capillary electrophoresis chip (paper CE chip) can provide a new diagnostic platform for ultrafast viral disease detection at the point-of-care (POC) level.

Point‐of‐Care Testing (POCT) Devices for DNA Detection: A Comprehensive Review

“…Reproduced under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license 4.0. [ 213 ] Copyright 2021, The Authors. Published by Springer Nature.…”

“…The red band on the separation channel represents the electrophoretic band of viral dsRNA, while the green and blue bands represent the electrophoretic bands of distinct human RNAs, which the electrophoretic band can be read by the guided ruler in the small rectangular. Reproduced under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license 4.0 [213]. Copyright 2021, The Authors.…”

Electrophoretic µPAD for Purification and Analysis of DNA Samples

“…Sample migration over the entire chip area, using lower electric fields compared to previous reported work (20 V/cm), was observed consistently within 5 min, offering a simple, fast, and robust method for DNA movement. Double-stranded RNA samples in cellulose-based electrophoresis or DNA in paper-based ITP experiments were performed under higher electric fields ranging from 160 to 210 V/cm for 6 to 10 min [30,32] or lower electric field strengths but substantially longer connection times, as shown for the separation of polysaccharides on the glass microfiber with 3 V/cm for 40 h [34]. In order to determine the migration rate of DNA fragments in the 1 kb ladder, fiberelectrophoresis chips were exposed to the electric field for different time durations.…”

“…A low-voltage paper-based origami was developed for the detection of fluorescent molecules and proteins in a patterned cellulose fiber containing a buffer reservoir with introduced Ag/AgCl electrodes [ 29 ]. The electrophoretic separation of synthetic RNA mimicking viral and human RNA was published recently [ 30 ]. The investigation of the basic electrophoretic migration of fluorescent dyes was carried out in experiments using isotachophoresis (ITP) [ 31 ].…”

Multi-functional imaging inspired by insect stereopsis

“…Like insect's vision, multi-aperture imaging systems capture an array of scenes with the visual parallax of a target object in a single shot [20][21][22][23][24] . They allow stereoscopic imaging by reconstructing spatiotemporal data [25][26][27][28] . However, some technical limitations still exist in emulating insects' visual features due to their limited depth-of-field and bulky systems 29,30 .…”