An estimated 36.7 million people are infected with HIV worldwide and require ongoing monitoring of viral levels to adjust their treatment regimens. The current standard for viral load monitoring uses RT-PCR to detect HIV RNA, which is a time and resource expensive diagnostic technique. A more optimal diagnostic for viral load monitoring would be available at the point of care, consume small amount of sample and reagents, and require little specialized training and equipment to operate. We have previously shown that a class of molecules called peptide nucleic acids (PNA) can be used in a sandwich assay format for highly sensitive and specific detection of HIV RNA in a 96-well plate. We have worked on converting this assay into a microfluidic device with a simple visual read out. We developed a detection and amplification scheme for use in a microfluidic device with our sandwich assay utilizing gold nanoparticles coated with chemically modified PNA. A visual signal is generated by the deposition of silver ions onto the gold nanoparticles with a commercially available silver enhancer solution.

Use of peptide nucleic acid coated gold nanopaticles for signal detection and amplification in microfluidic diagnostics

254th National Meeting (2017)

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