Dengue is an endemic viral disease that affects tropical and subtropical areas. It is estimated that more than 50 million infections occur worldwide per year. Due to its lack of pathognomonic clinical features, dengue is often mistakenly diagnosed as other febrile diseases, which thus leads to ineffective and costly overtreatment. Previously developed diagnostic tests for dengue can only detect a single biomarker (or two to three kinds of targets) at a time and they also lack comprehensive and syntagmatic analysis between various dengue-specific biomarkers. For an effective and precision diagnostics of dengue infection, a diagnostic test should not only be highly sensitive and specific, but also determine dengue virus serotype and distinguish between primary and secondary infection. This can only be accomplished by developing a multiplexed test that covers multiple targets. Here we present an integrated multiplexed optical microfluidic system (iMOMs) with the detection capability of four different nucleic acids biomarkers and five different protein biomarkers (i.e. NS-1, IgM, IgG, IgA, and IgE) on chip. We design, simulate, and fabricate the iMOMs using polymer microfluidic substrates. We integrate biological printing technology with the microfluidic device technology. We demonstrate multiplexed dengue specific- nucleic acid amplifications and immunoassays. The iMOMs will be an ideal dengue diagnostic platform for both developed and developing countries and can be applied to give accurate and ultra-sensitive point-of- care diagnoses for other intractable diseases as well.
Project end date: 01/30/19