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Special Issue "Optical Sensing Technology for Point-of-Care Diagnostics"

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Dear Colleagues,

The success of POC diagnostics heavily depends on the continued development of alternative medical technologies that are cost-effective, yet sensitive and sufficiently accurate. In this quest, optical technologies play an increasingly important role, as the advances in opto-electronics, fiber optics, optical micro-systems and microfluidics have rapidly transformed the field of biomedical optics.

The field of optical sensors has undergone rapid growth in recent years, with new concepts in miniaturization, multiplex analysis, photonic structures, and optically responsive materials appearing regularly. At the same time, the fields of genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics are providing a wealth of new molecules for detection purposes.

This Special Issue will highlight research focused on the development and use of new optical sensors for medical diagnostics, biomedical research, and related endeavors. Papers that describe new optical diagnostics methods for point-of-care, field-use, and resource-limited applications are encouraged, as are those that report novel assays, multiplex testing systems, “lab-on-a-chip” sensors, and spectroscopic methods.

Dr. Xuegang Li
Prof. Dr. Yanan Zhang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

optical sensing
point-of-care diagnostics
integrated photonics for sensing
plasmonics
multiplex detection
spectroscopy
lab-on-a-chip devices

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Research

16 pages, 2074 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Surface Functionalised Optical Fibre for Detection of Hydrogen Sulphide

Shaghayegh Baghapour

Jasmine Nehema

Wen Qi Zhang

Stephen C. Warren-Smith

Shane M. Hickey

Sally E. Plush

and

Shahraam Afshar Vahid

Biosensors 2023, 13(11), 949; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios13110949 - 24 Oct 2023

Viewed by 685

Abstract

Dysregulated production of hydrogen sulphide in the human body has been associated with various diseases including cancer, underlining the importance of accurate detection of this molecule. Here, we report the detection of hydrogen sulphide using fluorescence-emission enhancement of two 1,8-naphthalimide fluorescent probes with an azide moiety in position 4. One probe, serving as a control, featured a methoxyethyl moiety through the imide to evaluate its effectiveness for hydrogen sulphide detection, while the other probe was modified with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) to enable direct covalent attachment to an optical fibre tip. We coated the optical fibre tip relatively homogeneously with the APTES-azide fluorophore, as confirmed via x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The absorption and fluorescence responses of the control fluorophore free in PBS were analysed using UV-Vis and fluorescence spectrophotometry, while the fluorescence emission of the APTES-azide fluorophore-coated optical fibres was examined using a simple, low-cost optical fibre-based setup. Both fluorescent probes exhibited a significant increase (more than double the initial value) in fluorescence emission upon the addition of HS⁻ when excited with 405 nm. However, the fluorescence enhancement of the coated optical fibres demonstrated a much faster response time of 2 min (time for the fluorescence intensity to reach 90% of its maximum value) compared to the control fluorophore in solution (30 min). Additionally, the temporal evolution of fluorescence intensity of the fluorophore coated on the optical fibre was studied at two pH values (7.4 and 6.4), demonstrating a reasonable overlap and confirming the compound pH insensitivity within this range. The promising results from this study indicate the potential for developing an optical fibre-based sensing system for HS⁻ detection using the synthesised fluorophore, which could have significant applications in health monitoring and disease detection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Sensing Technology for Point-of-Care Diagnostics)

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12 pages, 1976 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ultrasensitive and Rapid Visual Detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Based on RAA-CRISPR/Cas12a System

and

Biosensors 2023, 13(6), 659; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios13060659 - 16 Jun 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1129

Abstract

Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 is a major foodborne and waterborne pathogen that can threaten human health. Due to its high toxicity at low concentrations, it is crucial to establish a time-saving and highly sensitive in situ detection method. Herein, we developed a rapid, ultrasensitive, and visualized method for detecting E. coli O157:H7 based on a combination of Recombinase-Aided Amplification (RAA) and CRISPR/Cas12a technology. The CRISPR/Cas12a-based system was pre-amplified using the RAA method, which showed high sensitivity and enabled detecting as low as ~1 CFU/mL (fluorescence method) and 1 × 10² CFU/mL (lateral flow assay) of E. coli O157:H7, which was much lower than the detection limit of the traditional real-time PCR technology (10³ CFU/mL) and ELISA (10⁴~10⁷ CFU/mL). In addition, we demonstrated that this method still has good applicability in practical samples by simulating the detection in real milk and drinking water samples. Importantly, our RAA-CRISPR/Cas12a detection system could complete the overall process (including extraction, amplification, and detection) within 55 min under optimized conditions, which is faster than most other reported sensors, which take several hours to several days. The signal readout could also be visualized by fluorescence generated with a handheld UV lamp or a naked-eye-detected lateral flow assay depending on the DNA reporters used. Because of the advantages of being fast, having high sensitivity, and not requiring sophisticated equipment, this method has a promising application prospect for in situ detection of trace amounts of pathogens. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Sensing Technology for Point-of-Care Diagnostics)

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