Advances in microfluidics in combating infectious diseases

Abstract

One of the important pursuits in science and engineering research today is to develop low-cost and user-friendly technologies to improve the health of people. Over the past decade, research efforts in microfluidics have been made to develop methods that can facilitate low-cost diagnosis of infectious diseases, especially in resource-poor settings. Here, we provide an overview of the recent advances in microfluidic devices for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics for infectious diseases and emphasis is placed on malaria, sepsis and AIDS/HIV. Other infectious diseases such as SARS, tuberculosis, and dengue are also briefly discussed. These infectious diseases are chosen as they contribute the most to disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The current state of research in this area is evaluated and projection toward future applications and accompanying challenges are also discussed.

Application of nanodiagnostics in point-of-care tests for infectious diseases

“…Among them, lab-on-a-chip and microfluidics techniques have shown good promise for the detection of infectious diseases. 54,55 Through these techniques, multiple assays could be integrated into one single device, 56,57 resulting in a decrease in the volume of samples from infected patients, the consumption of materials, and the analysis time. These advantages of the integrated systems could greatly potentiate to build low-cost and portable devices.…”

Lab-on-a-Chip Technologies for the Single Cell Level: Separation, Analysis, and Diagnostics

“…This is often achieved with the LAMP test and its derivatives, LAMPport and NINA-LAMP [22,47,48,55,61]. However, many other, especially microfluidic, approaches have also been tested and discussed for their aptitude to be used for POC diagnostic tools [38,45,205,212,[221][222][223][224][225].…”

Microfluidics technology: future prospects for molecular diagnostics

“…In 2015, the global molecular (Table 1). 95,96 However, there are relatively few commercial products available in the market, given the immense interest from both academia and industry. This is because of the lack of a gamechanging product (or a "killer application") that can generate at least hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, 97 and thus, many investors would turn to other emerging technologies potentially coming with high revenues, resulting in reduced financial support for new product development.…”