Abstract
The diagnosis of infectious diseases is entering a new and interesting phase. Technologies based on paper microfluidics, coupled to developments in isothermal amplification of Nucleic Acids (NAs) raise opportunities for bringing the methods of molecular biology in the field, in a low setting environment. A lot of work has been performed in the domain over the last few years and the landscape of contributions is rich and diverse. Most often, the level of sample preparation differs, along with the sample nature, the amplification and detection methods, and the design of the device, among other features. In this review, we attempt to offer a structured description of the state of the art. The domain is not mature and there exist bottlenecks that hamper the realization of Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests (NAATs) complying with the constraints of the field in low and middle income countries. In this domain however, the pace of progress is impressively fast. This review is written for a broad Lab on a Chip audience.
Highlights
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not
We recently reported a diagnostic platform that uses paper folding to integrate the different blood sample preparation steps that are required for Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) onto a paper microfluidic device [25]
In an attempt to overcome the problems associated with immuno-rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), a new highly multiplexed microfluidic immunodiagnostic platform has recently been deployed in Kenya, the device requires laboratory-like conditions and further optimization for its performance to be equivalent to reference tests [35]
Summary
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. Low-cost, species-specific diagnosis, based upon DNA testing, is becoming important in the treatment of patients with infectious diseases. Light microscopy has long been the “go-to” standard technique used to diagnose malaria in such areas, and requires only a microscope and a trained technician to achieve detection sensitivities of 100 parasites per microliter of blood [4]. This diagnostic technique cannot detect asymptomatic patients, who have very low, persistent parasite loads in their blood. This is a key challenge, for the identification of these patients is required to treat all infectious reservoirs, thereby working toward important WHO targets concerning disease elimination [5]
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