Groundbreaking Cheap ‘Lab-on-a-Chip’ Express HIV Testing
A biomedical engineer Professor Alexander Revzin is the brainchild behind the new-fangled microfluidic HIV testing tool. Prof. Revzin’s ‘lab-on-a-chip’ device employs antibodies for capturing WBCs (white blood cells or T cells) that bear the brunt due to HIV infection. Alongside, physically fastening the cells, this HIV test could detect the forms and amounts of rabble-rousing cytokines (protein types) produced by the cells.
Revzin and his study group worked in partnership with Professor Aydogan Ozcan, an electrical engineer from UCLA for integrating an antibody micro-array having a lens-free holographical imaging tool which counts the numbers of incarcerated cells and emitted protein molecules within just seconds. The test provides outcomes 6-12 times swifter as compared to conventional strategies and evaluates 6 factors concurrently. Outcomes of the study have appeared in the current year’s May edition of the journal ‘Analytical Chemistry’.
The test when fine-tuned would be capable of multiple parametric blood evaluation in third world and resource-deficit nations. Since the test is reasonably priced, it would additionally make it a lucrative choice in developed nations.
Revzin stated that alongside testing and checking HIV, the gadget would be beneficial for blood transfusion cases wherein safety quotient is often questionable.
The highly precise and effectual means of diagnosing and monitoring HIV infection entails tracking counts of duo forms of T cells, computing the proportion between the duo forms of T cells and cytokine measurement. Researchers perform this employing a procedure known as flow cytometry which needs a costly device and a number of experts with wide-ranging experience. Health care employees and HIV campaigners in third-world countries have requested for cost-effective and simple tests.
Revzin explicated that even as the point-of-care lays focus on identification of one factor (for instance, CD4 counts), researchers deem that the straightforwardness of the test must not conciliate info content. Hence, they developed a test which would be uncomplicated and cheap, yet offering numerous parameters on the basis of just one jab of a tiny amount of blood.
The HIV test would address duo diverse requirements of blood tests namely capture the needed cell form from the blood which comprises of several cell forms and to connect the needed blood cell form with emitted cytokines. The test comprises of a polymer sheath embossed with a range of miniscule marks. Every dot has antibodies specific to the duo forms of T cells (i.e., CD4 and 
and trio cytokine forms stamped in the analogous array. The blood would flow crosswise the antibody dots and the T cells would halt and adhere on to the dots.
Every T cell form was incarcerated close to the antibody dots specific to the cytokines they may secrete. Following activation of the cells by the antibodies, dots adjoining to the cells were found to capture the cytokine they produced. This linked a specific T cell sub-set to its produced cytokines. The apparent color strength of antibody dots showed discrepancies in cytokine secretion by T cells.
The lens-free ‘lab-on-a-chip’ imaging technique facilitated swifter imaging and counting T cell array types, with no need for any types of lens or automatic scan.
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