Abstract
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease affecting over 200 million people worldwide. This study reports the design and development of a microfiltration device for isolating schistosome eggs in urine for rapid diagnostics of urogenital schistosomiasis. The design of the device comprises a linear array of microfluidic traps to immobilize and separate schistosome eggs. Sequential loading of individual eggs is achieved autonomously by flow resistance, which facilitates observation and enumeration of samples with low-abundance targets. Computational fluid dynamics modeling and experimental characterization are performed to optimize the trapping performance. By optimizing the capture strategy, the trapping efficiency could be achieved at 100% with 300 μl/min and 83% with 3000 μl/min, and the filtration procedure could be finished within 10 min. The trapped eggs can be either recovered for downstream analysis or preserved in situ for whole-mount staining. On-chip phenotyping using confocal laser fluorescence microscopy identifies the microstructure of the trapped schistosome eggs. The device provides a novel microfluidic approach for trapping, counting and on-chip fluorescence characterization of urinal Schistosoma haematobium eggs for clinical and investigative application.
Highlights
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by schistosomes
The general design of the microfiltration device consists of a linear array of microfluidic traps in the chamber (Fig 1A)
The geometry of the microfluidic trap is designed based on the size of eggs of Schistosoma haematobium
Summary
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by schistosomes. It is one of the most devastating tropical diseases affecting over 200 million people in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and South America [1, 2]. Schistosoma haematobium, which causes urogenital schistosomiasis, accounts for the majority of schistosome infections worldwide. The eggs of Schistosoma haematobium are excreted into urine, and are characterized by the oval-shaped body and external terminal spine with a miracidium inside [3]. Urogenital schistosomiasis is generally diagnosed by microscopic inspection of schistosome eggs in urine. Rapid characterization of schistosome eggs represents a key step for clinical management of schistosomiasis. Due to the low concentration of schistosome eggs and matrix effects of urine
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