Abstract
Microfluidic devices that allow biological particle separation and concentration have found wide applications in medical diagnosis. Here we present a viral separation polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) device that combines tangential flow microfiltration and affinity capture to enrich HIV virus in a single flow-through fashion. The set-up contains a filtration device and a tandem resistance channel. The filtration device consists of two parallel flow channels separated by a polycarbonate nanoporous membrane. The resistance channel, with dimensions design-guided by COMSOL simulation, controls flow permeation through the membrane in the filtration device. A flow-dependent viral capture efficiency is observed, which likely reflects the interplay of several processes, including specific binding of target virus, physical deposition of non-specific particles, and membrane cleaning by shear flow. At the optimal flow rate, nearly 100% of viral particles in the permeate are captured on the membrane with various input viral concentrations. With its easy operation and consistent performance, this microfluidic device provides a potential solution for HIV sample preparation in resource-limited settings.
Highlights
Diagnosis of viral infection such as HIV is still largely limited by resources in high-incidence areas such as sub-Saharan Africa
Combining cross-flow microfiltration and affinity capture, we hypothesize that a high capture efficiency of viral particles can be achieved with continuous flow in a microfluidic channel
The filtration device consists of two parallel channels separated by a permeable PC nanoporous membrane
Summary
The methods can be divided into physical and affinity separation approaches Different physical properties, such as particle size, density, shape, electrical and dielectrical properties have been employed to separate viruses from other species. While they are flexible and have high throughputs, electrical separations often require special solutions to suspend the sample to reduce joule heating and/or electrical field shielding. Dead-end filtration, easy to operate, is prone to clogging These physical methods generally lack specificity, as the target particles usually share similar physical properties to some of the non-specific species [6,8,16,17,18]. Introducing micro- and nanostructures such as posts and pores into microchannels or using nanofludics directly could significantly improve the interactions and capture yield, whereas they face issues such as fabrication complexity, high flow resistance and low throughput [22,23]
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