Cellular-Beacon-Mediated Counting for the Ultrasensitive Detection of Ebola Virus on an Integrated Micromagnetic Platform

• Published in: Analytical chemistry (Washington) Vol. 90; no. 12; pp. 7310 - 7317
• Main Authors: Hong, Shao-Li, Zhang, Ya-Nan, Liu, Ya-Hua, Tang, Man, Pang, Dai-Wen, Wong, Gary, Chen, Jianjun, Qiu, Xiangguo, Gao, George F, Liu, Wenjun, Bi, Yuhai, Zhang, Zhi-Ling
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 19.06.2018
• Subjects: Beacons; Chemistry; Diagnosis; Ebola virus; Fluorescence; Magnetic fields; Medical diagnosis; Optical properties; Pretreatment; Reproducibility; Sensors; Viral diseases
• ISSN: 0003-2700; 1520-6882
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b00513

Ebola virus (EBOV) disease is a complex zoonosis that is highly virulent in humans and has caused many deaths. Highly sensitive detection of EBOV is of great importance for early-stage diagnosis for increasing the probability of survival. Herein, we established a cellular-beacon-mediated counting strategy for an ultrasensitive EBOV assay on a micromagnetic platform. The detection platform, which was assisted by on-demand magnetic-field manipulation, showed high integration and enhanced complex-sample pretreatment by magnetophoretic separation and continuous-flow washing. Cellular beacons (i.e., fluorescent cells) with superior optical properties were used as reporters, and each cellular beacon was used as a fluorescent tracking unit to quantify EBOV by counting the numbers of individual fluorescent signals on the micromagnetic platform. This method achieves high sensitivity with a detection limit as low as 2.6 pg/mL, and the detection limit shows little difference in a complex matrix. In addition, it has excellent specificity and good reproducibility. These results indicate that this method proposes an ultrasensitive detection strategy for early diagnosis of the disease.