Recent advances in lab-on-a-chip technologies for viral diagnosis

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThe global risk of viral disease outbreaks emphasizes the need for rapid, accurate, and sensitive detection techniques to speed up diagnostics allowing early intervention. An emerging field of microfluidics also known as the lab-on-a-chip (LOC) or micro total analysis system includes a wide range of diagnostic devices. This review briefly covers both conventional and microfluidics-based techniques for rapid viral detection. We first describe conventional detection methods such as cell culturing, immunofluorescence or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). These methods often have limited speed, sensitivity, or specificity and are performed with typically bulky equipment. Here, we discuss some of the LOC technologies that can overcome these demerits, highlighting the latest advances in LOC devices for viral disease diagnosis. We also discuss the fabrication of LOC systems to produce devices for performing either individual steps or virus detection in samples with the sample to answer method. The complete system consists of sample preparation, and ELISA and RT-PCR for viral-antibody and nucleic acid detection, respectively. Finally, we formulate our opinions on these areas for the future development of LOC systems for viral diagnostics.

Developments in biosensors for CoV detection and future trends

“…Another important strength of ABBs is their wireless link capability, which allows the transmission of the measured data to a remote medical database or to a health care provider. The measured data could be automatically uploaded via Bluetooth to the patient's smartphone or tablet and then directly transferred to Health Centers, thus monitoring the disease outbreak ( Zhu et al, 2020a , Zhu et al, 2020b , Zhu et al, 2020c ). Moreover, a big data “Internet of Things” (IoT) system for healthcare is emerging, so that machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches can be used to extract the maximum amount of information from the analytical responses of the developed biosensors and to allow the results to rapidly inform Health Authorities to tackle infection disease outbreak, to make epidemiological models and to prevent novel pandemic outbreaks.…”

“…The peculiar characteristics of the ABBs biosensors allow them to complement current methods of screening and monitoring for an early warning of a viral disease outbreak, especially when in situ and real-time analysis is required. Thanks to the recent progress in electronics, the ABBs biosensors can be miniaturized as lab-on-chip or handheld devices for on-site monitoring ( Lafleur et al, 2016 ; Zhu et al, 2020a ).…”

Detection of Bacterial and Viral Pathogens Using Photonic Point-of-Care Devices

“…Vertical flow immunoassays (VFIA) are alternate paper-based assays that are based on the vertical flow of sample due to gravity and capillary action, and they tend to have a faster detection time [ 45 ]. In addition to papers, glass-based MF devices are also quite common due to their excellent optical properties, chemical inertness, surface stability, and solvent compatibility; thus, glass is used for fabricating devices for the detection of enzymes, antibodies, and whole cell [ 47 ]. Polymer-based MF devices fabricated by using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyethylene, polypropylene, etc., are extensively used in commercial devices due to their low cost, compared to glass and silicon, high transparency, and chemical/electrical resistance which is particularly desirable for electrochemical immunosensors [ 42 ].…”

Integrated Micropillar Polydimethylsiloxane Accurate CRISPR Detection System for Viral DNA Sensing

“… 10 Strides have been made to develop POC detection methods which can be deployed in the field, and currently lab-on-chip (LOC) devices or simple test kits which involve real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) have emerged as one of the leading choices for meeting the desired criteria. 11 RT-PCR is particularly sought after due to its ability to amplify the viral RNA/DNA from a few copies to billions. 12 It has also been shown to work with clinical samples in LOC devices with low volumes of both reagents and patient samples.…”