Microfluidic Point-of-Care Testing: Commercial Landscape and Future Directions

Abstract

Point-of-care testing (POCT) allows physicians to detect and diagnose diseases at or near the patient site, faster than conventional lab-based testing. The importance of POCT is considerably amplified in the trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous point-of-care tests and diagnostic devices are available in the market including, but not limited to, glucose monitoring, pregnancy and infertility testing, infectious disease testing, cholesterol testing and cardiac markers. Integrating microfluidics in POCT allows fluid manipulation and detection in a singular device with minimal sample requirements. This review presents an overview of two technologies - (a.) Lateral Flow Assay (LFA) and (b.) Nucleic Acid Amplification - upon which a large chunk of microfluidic POCT diagnostics is based, some of their applications, and commercially available products. Apart from this, we also delve into other microfluidic-based diagnostics that currently dominate the in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) market, current testing landscape for COVID-19 and prospects of microfluidics in next generation diagnostics.

Potential of Point-of-Care and At-Home Assessment of Immune Status via Rapid Cytokine Detection and Questionnaire-Based Anamnesis

“…From these, we retain those that review or otherwise discuss recent advances, thus excluding articles that concentrate on a specific technological solution. Eleven articles are finally retained [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ], ordered alphabetically by name of the first author.…”

“…We find that smartphone cameras/lens, possibly with a mechanical adapter attached to it, are seen as appropriate for image processing [ 41 , 50 , 54 ] and readings from paper (test pads, test strips) [ 40 ]. Zarei points to the potential of smartphones for all of ‘colorimetric, fluorescence, luminescence, and electrochemical detections’ [ 52 ].…”

“…Some readers can be attached to a smartphone [ 53 ]. Other readers can be linked to wearables [ 54 ], while others point to ‘sample handling platforms, recognition elements and sensing methods’ that can be attached to a smartphone or wearable [ 42 ]. Hence, we consider cytokine reading devices that can be attached to a smartphone as appropriate for at-home usage.…”

Diagnosis of Herpes Simplex Virus: Laboratory and Point-of-Care Techniques

“…Microfluidic platforms have been widely used for POC devices due to their low cost, portability, and ability to support high yield assays. Microfluidic platforms typically utilize channels of dimension less than 1000 micron, which allow rapid diffusion of reagents and samples, laminar flow, and large surface-to-volume ratios and facilitate tests with small sample volumes [ 158 , 159 , 160 , 161 ]. Microchannels can be made of any suitable material, such as polymers, paper, glass, and fibers.…”

COVID-19 Biomarkers and Advanced Sensing Technologies for Point-of-Care (POC) Diagnosis

“…In the past, POC technologies assisted in glucose monitoring, pregnancy, infertility testing, infectious disease testing, cholesterol testing, cardiac monitoring, and many other forms of testing [25][26][27][28][29]. The focus of this paper will be COVID-19 sensing mechanism platforms for different biomarker detection, including Nucleic Acid Amplification for Viral RNA, Antigen Testing Nucleocapsid (N), Spike (S), Protein and Serological Test for antibodies (Immunoglobin) IgA, IgM, IgG and Interleukin (IL-6) inflammatory biomarkers.…”