Integrated Biosensor Platform for Nucleic Acids Extraction and Detection.

The development of portable systems for nucleic acids (NAs) analysis is crucial for the evolution of biosensing versus the future healthcare technologies. The integration of NAs extraction, purification and detection modules, properly actuated by microfluidics technologies is a key point for the development of portable diagnostic systems. In this paper we described an integrated biosensor platform based on silicon-plastic hybrid Lab-on-disk technology able to manage NAs extraction, purification and detection process in integrated format. The sample preparation process is performed by solid phase extraction technology using magnetic beads on plastic disk, while the detection through quantitative Real-Time PCR on miniaturized silicon device. The sample and reagents movements are actuated by centrifugal-force induced by disk actuator instrument. The assessment of the NAs extraction and detection performances has been carried out by using Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA genome as biological target. Quantification of the qRT-PCR chip in the hybrid disk showed an improvement in sensitivity respect to the qRT-PCR commercial platforms, which means an optimization of time and costs. Limit of Detection (LoD) and a Limit of Quantification (LoQ) values of about 8 cps/reaction and 26 cps/reaction, respectively, were found by using analytical samples (synthetic clone), while the results with real samples (serum with spiked HBV genome) indicates the system performs as well as the standard methods. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.