Application of a Waveguide-Mode Sensor to Blood Testing for Hepatitis B Virus, Hepatitis C Virus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Treponema pallidum Infection.

Shigeyuki Uno,Makoto Fujimaki,Makoto Makishima,Mutsuo Tanaka,Torahiko Tanaka,Takenori Shimizu,Koichi Awazu,Hiroki Ashiba

doi:10.3390/s19071729

Abstract

Testing for blood-transmitted infectious agents is an important aspect of safe medical treatment. During emergencies, such as significant earthquakes, many patients need surgical treatment and/or blood transfusion. Because a waveguide mode (WM) sensor can be used as a portable, on-site blood testing device in emergency settings, we have previously developed WM sensors for detection of antibodies against hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus and for forward ABO and Rh(D) and reverse ABO blood typing. In this study, we compared signal enhancement methods using secondary antibodies conjugated with peroxidase, a fluorescent dye, and gold nanoparticles, and found that the peroxidase reaction method offers superior sensitivity while gold nanoparticles provide the most rapid detection of anti-HBs antibody. Next, we examined whether we could apply a WM sensor with signal enhancement with peroxidase or gold nanoparticles to detection of antibodies against hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus and Treponema pallidum, and HBs antigen in plasma. We showed that a WM sensor can detect significant signals of these infectious agents within 30 min. Therefore, a portable device utilizing a WM sensor can be used for on-site blood testing of infectious agents in emergency settings.

Highlights

Blood tests for infectious agents, such as hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Treponema pallidum (TP), are required before surgical treatment and blood transfusion in order to protect patients and medical personnel from infection [1,2]
We developed a waveguide mode (WM) sensor-based method to detect antigen-antibody complexes in plasma samples more quickly utilizing signal enhancement methods and applied the method to the detection of anti-HCV antibody, anti-HIV antibody, anti-TP antibody and HBV surface antigen
We examined whether we can apply a WM sensor to detection of antibodies against HCV, HIV and TP in plasma

Summary

Introduction

Blood tests for infectious agents, such as hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Treponema pallidum (TP), are required before surgical treatment and blood transfusion in order to protect patients and medical personnel from infection [1,2]. Screening tests for infectious agents are routinely performed at major hospitals and blood examination centers, laboratories cannot be expected to work effectively during an emergency or natural calamity due to building collapse, disrupted electrical power supply and damage or injury to laboratories. The wavelength of a WM sensor is widely controllable over the visible light spectrum by adjusting the thickness of the top SiO2 and embedded silicon layers. The material used to induce SPR restricts the wavelength of incident light for a SPR sensor, this restriction is not applicable to a WM sensor

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Conclusion