Microfluidic capillary system for rapid differential diagnosis of sepsis

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Sepsis is a severe stage of body infection that can lead to organ failure and death. According to World Health Organization, 20-30 million people are affected by sepsis worldwide-with a mortality rate of 35%. Rapid diagnosis of sepsis is crucial as each hour of delay in initiation of treatment is associated with an approximate mean decrease in survival of 7%. Currently, culturing the patient samples, PCR and ELISA techniques are used to diagnose the septic conditions. However, these methods are time consuming (takes >5 hrs), expensive, and require qualified technicians to perform the test. Procalcitonin is a specific protein biomarker for sepsis and microbial infections, which can be measured in patient's blood sample. This proposal describes the development of a new diagnostic device that allows rapid, highly sensitive, and low-cost measurement of procalcitonin concentration in blood in less than 15 minutes. this approach relies on the use of a novel self-powered and self-contained microfluidic capillary circuit to perform a one-step immunoassay. Detection will be carried out using Europium labelled detection antibody. A large Stokes' shift provided by the time resolved fluorometry allows more sensitive measurement of the fluorescence. Protocols for immobilization and preservation of antibodies on the liquid handling microchip will also be developed. Optimization and calibration of this platform will be carried out using plasma samples spiked with procalcitonin antigen. This effort allows the introduce an inexpensive procalcitonin point of care test using only finger prick of whole blood without sacrificing the sensitivity of the assay.