Detecting Collagen Molecules at Picogram Level through Electric Field-Induced Accumulation
Romina Rega,
Martina Mugnano,
Emilia Oleandro,
Volodymyr Tkachenko,
Danila del Giudice,
Gianluca Bagnato,
Pietro Ferraro,
Simonetta Grilli,
Sebastiano Gangemi
Affiliations
Romina Rega
Department of Physical Science and Technology of Matter, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy
Martina Mugnano
Department of Physical Science and Technology of Matter, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy
Emilia Oleandro
Department of Physical Science and Technology of Matter, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy
Volodymyr Tkachenko
Department of Physical Science and Technology of Matter, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy
Danila del Giudice
Department of Physical Science and Technology of Matter, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy
Gianluca Bagnato
Division of Pneumology, Papardo Hospital, Contrada Papardo, 98122 Messina, Italy
Pietro Ferraro
Department of Physical Science and Technology of Matter, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy
Simonetta Grilli
Department of Physical Science and Technology of Matter, Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy
Sebastiano Gangemi
School and Operative Unit of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, 98122 Messina, Italy
The demand for sensors capable of measuring low-abundant collagen in human fluids has highly increased in recent years. Indeed, collagen is expected to be a biomarker for chronic diseases and could monitor their progression. Here we show detection of highly diluted samples of collagen at picogram level thanks to an innovative pyro-electrohydrodynamic jet (p-jet) system. Through the intense electric fields generated by the pyroelectric effect in a ferroelectric crystal, the collagen solution was concentrated on a small area of a slide that was appropriately functionalized to bind proteins. The collagen molecules were labeled by an appropriate fluorophore to show how the number of tiny droplets influences the limit of detection of the technique. The results show that the p-jet is extremely promising for overcoming the current detection limits of collagen-based products in human fluids, performing 10 times better than the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and thus paving the way for the early diagnosis of related chronic diseases.
