Automated and ultrasensitive point-of-care glycoprotein detection using boronate-affinity enhanced organic electrochemical transistor patch

Abstract

Quantifying trace glycoproteins in biofluids requires ultrasensitive components, but feedback is not available in the current portable platforms of point-of-care (POC) diagnosis technologies. A compact and ultrasensitive bioelectrochemical patch was based on boronate-affinity amplified organic electrochemical transistors (BAAOECTs) for POC use was developed to overcome this dilemma. Benefit from the cascading signal enhancement deriving from boronate-affinity targeting multiple regions of glycoprotein and OECTs’ inherent signal amplification capability, the BAAOECTs achieved a detection limit of 300 aM within 25 min, displaying about 3 orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity compared with the commercial electrochemical luminescence (ECL) kit. By using a microfluidic chip, a microcontroller module, and a wireless sensing system, the testing workflows of the above patch was automated, allowing for running the sample-to-answer pipeline even in a resource-limited environment. The reliability of such portable biosensing platform is well recognized in clinical diagnostic applications of heart failure. Overall, the remarkable enhanced sensitivity and automated workflow of BAAOECTs biosensing platform provide a prospective and generalized design policy for expanding the POC diagnosis capabilities of glycoproteins.