An integrated microfluidic platform for on-site qPCR analysis: food allergen detection from sample to result.

Improving food safety is crucial in the context of a "One Health" approach. To guarantee product quality and safety, the food industry, which has a very high turnover rate, needs short time-to-result analyses. Therefore, user-friendly systems at the point-of-need are necessary, presenting relevant analytical information and fulfilling the current regulations.

A versatile and automated microfluidic platform for a quantitative magnetic bead based protocol: application to gluten detection.

A microfluidic platform for the integration of multi-step biological assays has been developed. The presented system is a unique instrument compatible with microfluidic chips for various applications based on bead manipulation. Two examples of microfluidic cartridges are presented here.

Kinetics of Isothermal Dumbbell Exponential Amplification: Effects of Mix Composition on LAMP and Its Derivatives.

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is an exponential amplification method of DNA strands that is more and more used for its high performances. Thanks to its high sensitivity and selectivity, LAMP found numerous applications from the detection of pathogens or viruses through their genome amplification to its incorporation as an amplification strategy in protein or miRNA biomarker quantification. The LAMP method is composed of two stages: the first one consists in the transformation of the DNA strands into dumbbell structures formed of two stems and loops thanks to four primers; then, in the second stage, only two primers are required to amplify the dumbbells exponentially in numerous hairpins of increasing lengths.

Development of an Innovative Quantification Assay Based on Aptamer Sandwich and Isothermal Dumbbell Exponential Amplification.

Detecting blood biomarkers such as proteins with high sensitivity and specificity is of the utmost importance for early and reliable disease diagnosis. As molecular probes, aptamers are raising increasing interest for biosensor applications as an alternative to antibodies, which are used in classical enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assays (ELISA). We have developed a sensitive and antibody-free molecular quantification assay that combines the specificity of aptamers and the sensitivity of the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP).

PepS: An Innovative Microfluidic Device for Bedside Whole Blood Processing before Plasma Proteomics Analyses.

Immunoassays have been used for decades in clinical laboratories to quantify proteins in serum and plasma samples. However, their limitations make them inappropriate in some cases. Recently, mass spectrometry (MS) based proteomics analysis has emerged as a promising alternative method when seeking to assess panels of protein biomarkers with a view to providing protein profiles to monitor health status.

Recent advances in cardiac biomarkers detection: From commercial devices to emerging technologies.

Although cardiac pathologies are the major cause of death in the world, it remains difficult to provide a reliable diagnosis to prevent heart attacks. Rapid patient care and management in emergencies are critical to prevent dramatic consequences. Thus, relevant biomarkers such as cardiac troponin and natriuretic peptides are currently targeted by commercialized Point-Of-Care immunoassays.

Red Blood Cell Agglutination for Blood Typing Within Passive Microfluidic Biochips.

Pre-transfusion bedside compatibility test is mandatory to check that the donor and the recipient present compatible groups before any transfusion is performed. Although blood typing devices are present on the market, they still suffer from various drawbacks, like results that are based on naked-eye observation or difficulties in blood handling and process automation. In this study, we addressed the development of a red blood cells (RBC) agglutination assay for point-of-care blood typing.

Real time observation and automated measurement of red blood cells agglutination inside a passive microfluidic biochip containing embedded reagents.

The process of agglutination is commonly used for the detection of biomarkers like proteins or viruses. The multiple bindings between micrometer sized particles, either latex beads or red blood cells (RBCs), create aggregates that are easily detectable and give qualitative information about the presence of the biomarkers. In most cases, the detection is made by simple naked-eye observation of agglutinates without any access to the kinetics of agglutination.

Discovery of serum biomarkers of ovarian cancer using complementary proteomic profiling strategies.

Purpose: Ovarian cancer is a devastating disease and biomarkers for its early diagnosis are urgently required. Serum may be a valuable source of biomarkers that may be revealed by proteomic profiling. Herein, complementary serum protein profiling strategies were employed for discovery of biomarkers that could discriminate cases of malignant and benign ovarian cancer.

Micro-organism extraction from biological samples using DEP forces enhanced by osmotic shock.

On the road towards efficient diagnostics of infectious diseases, sample preparation is considered as the key step and remains a real technical challenge. Finding new methods for extraction of micro-organisms from a complex biological sample remains a major challenge prior to pathogen detection and analysis. This paper reports a new technique for capturing and isolating micro-organisms from a complex sample.

Coagulation dynamics of a blood sample by multiple scattering analysis.

We report a new technique to measure coagulation dynamics on whole-blood samples. The method relies on the analysis of the speckle figure resulting from a whole-blood sample mixed with coagulation reagent and introduced in a thin chamber illuminated with a coherent light. A dynamic study of the speckle reveals a typical behavior due to coagulation.

Fast and continuous plasma extraction from whole human blood based on expanding cell-free layer devices.

This paper presents promising microfluidic devices designed for continuous and passive extraction of plasma from whole human blood. These designs are based on red cells lateral migration and the resulting cell-free layer locally expanded by geometric singularities such as an enlargement of the channel or a cavity adjacent to the channel. After an explanation of flow patterns, different tests are described that confirm the advantages of both proposed singularities, providing a 1.

Increased phosphorylation of vimentin in noninfiltrative meningiomas.

Background: Tissue invasion or tissue infiltration are clinical behaviors of a poor-prognosis subset of meningiomas. We carried out proteomic analyses of tissue extracts to discover new markers to accurately distinguish between infiltrative and noninfiltrative meningiomas.

Methodology/principal Findings: Protein lysates of 64 different tissue samples (including two brain-invasive and 32 infiltrative tumors) were submitted to SELDI-TOF mass spectrometric analysis.

Proteomic analysis permits the identification of new biomarkers of arterial wall remodeling in hypertension.

Hypertension represents one of the main risk factors for vascular diseases. Genetic susceptibility may influence the rate of its development and the associated vascular remodeling. To explore markers of hypertension-related morbidity, we have used surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (SELDI-TOF) mass spectrometry to study changes in proteins released by the aorta of two rat strains with different susceptibilities to hypertension.

SELDI-TOF MS analysis of the Cardiac Troponin I forms present in plasma from patients with myocardial infarction.

The troponin (Tn) complex is composed of troponin T, troponin C and troponin I. The cardiac isoform of TnI (cTnI) is modified and released in blood of patients with cardiovascular diseases as a heterogeneous mixture of free, complexed and posttranslationally modified forms. With the aim to determine later, whether specific forms of cTnI could be associated with the different pathologies leading to cTnI release, the cTnI forms present in the plasma from 64 patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have been analysed by SELDI-TOF MS using anti-TnI mAbs coupled to PS20 ProteinChips arrays.

Identification of a new marker of hepatocellular carcinoma by serum protein profiling of patients with chronic liver diseases.

Surface-enhanced laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) is a proteomic technique that enables the profiling of proteins present in any biological material studied. We used this approach to identify new biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the sera of patients with cirrhosis. Sera from 82 patients with cirrhosis, either without (n = 38) or with (n = 44) HCC, were analyzed by SELDI-TOF MS, and the results of the two groups were compared.

Repression of transcription at the human T-cell receptor Vbeta2.2 segment is mediated by a MAX/MAD/mSin3 complex acting as a scaffold for HDAC activity.

The identification of protein components in complex networks of co-regulators responsible for the modulation of proliferation versus differentiation modes of cell growth is a major problem. We use a combination of surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry, surface plasmon resonance coupled to electrospray mass spectrometry, and immunoelectromobility shift assays to identify members of the MAX/MAD family binding to a specific DNA silencer fragment involved in the regulation of transcription for the human T-cell receptor Vbeta2.2 segment.