Development of a low-cost point-of-care test for Tuberculosis detection

Resumen del póster presentado al VIII International Congress on Analytical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, celebrado en Barcelona (España) del 3 al 5 de julio de 2017.-- et al.Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a re-emerging disease impacting global health and affecting around 10.4 million people annually, with 1.8 million deaths. Registered incidence rates are low due to the lack of rapid and accurate diagnostic tools, especially in low-resource countries, posing serious hurdles for TB control. Since several years ago, a major effort is directed to develop a point-of-care (PoC) platform to facilitate the prompt and reliable TB diagnostics at low cost. In the frame of the European FP7 Pocket project, we have developed a novel PoC platform for the non-invasive technique detection of TB in human urine, accomplishing the above requirements. The new tuberculosis PoC is based on the combination of highly sensitive Mach-Zehnder integrated interferometers with an on-chip spectral filter, combined with a polymer microfluidic cartridge (disposable part), a SLED light source, a CCD camera for read-out and a graphical user interface for data processing. All the elements are incorporated in a PoC platform. The TB detection is achieved directly in the urine samples by an immunoassay employing high quality and selective antibodies against M. tuberculosis cell wall lipopolysaccharide lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and Ag85 complex. A preliminary Limit of Detection (LoD) of 956 pg/mL and 8.496 ng/mL for LAM and Ag85, respectively, have been achieved.European FP7 Pocket project.Peer reviewe