(163g) Early Screening of Infection Using Electrochemical Point-of-Care Biosensor

Infectious disease is ranked one of the top ten leading causes of death worldwide according to World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, about 16.8 million hospital visits have been registered in 2018 owing to infectious diseases as per Center for disease Control & prevention (CDC) reports. The primary cause of infection is attributed to bacterial or viral source. Despite medical advancements in health care technology, there exists a major challenge to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections. It is essential to identify if the infection is bacterial or viral as it dictates the course of treatment accordingly. Clinical ambiguity propels for antibiotic misuse, with deleterious repercussions to the patient and health care system including the advent of antibiotic resistance. Current diagnostic tests assist in determining infection etiology, but endures with limitations including prolonged result time, large sample volumes, uncertain clinical interpretations and false alarms due to non-specific techniques. Owing to the pressing need for a viable solution, we have developed a rapid point-of-care biosensor to screen for infection utilizing low plasma sample volume of 40 µL. Enabling a unique signature with the combination of specific biomarkers such as tumor necrosis factor related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), interferon γ-induced protein-10 (IP-10) and bacterial induced C-reactive protein (CRP) that facilitates appropriate treatment approach. The developed non-faradaic label-free biosensor using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique quantifies the target biomarker concentration by measuring impedance response due to binding interaction of the target biomarker with the specific capture probe. The biosensor has a detection limit of 50 pgmL^-1 for IP-10, 1 pgmL^-1 for TRAIL and 0.2 µgmL^-1 for CRP in plasma. The developed biosensor does not respond to any non-specific interactions. This novel biosensor allows sensitive detection of all three biomarkers in plasma with a response time of 5 minutes devoid of the need for sample dilution. Attributing to the specific detection methodology the developed point-of-care biosensor could serve as an imperious clinical resource to screen for infection.