Biosensors (Apr 2022)

Passivated Impedimetric Sensors for Immobilization-Free Pathogen Detection by Isothermal Amplification and Melt Curve Analysis

  • Matthias Steinmaßl,
  • Jamila Boudaden,
  • Güven Edgü,
  • Lena Julie Freund,
  • Simon Meyer,
  • Noa Mordehay,
  • Melissa Soto,
  • Hanns-Erik Endres,
  • Jost Muth,
  • Dirk Prüfer,
  • Wilfried Lerch,
  • Christoph Kutter

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12050261
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 5
p. 261

Abstract

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The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic demonstrates that the capacity of centralized clinical diagnosis laboratories represents a significant limiting factor in the global fight against the newly emerged virus. Scaling up these capacities also requires simple and robust methods for virus diagnosis to be easily driven by untrained personnel in a point-of-care (POC) environment. The use of impedance sensors reduces the complexity and costs of diagnostic instruments and increases automation of diagnosis processes. We present an impedance point-of-care system (IMP-POCS) that uses interdigitated electrodes surrounded by an integrated heating meander to monitor loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and melt curve analysis (MCA) consecutively in a short time. MCA permits distinguishing false- from true-positive results and significantly raises the validity of pathogen detection. Conclusively, the herein-developed miniaturized total analysis system (µTAS) represents a powerful and promising tool for providing reliable, low-cost alternatives to standard clinical diagnosis.

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