A low-cost portable microfluidic chemiluminometer for point-of-care testing of adiponectin for early risk assessment of diabetes

It is of great significance to implement early risk assessment of diabetes using point-of-care testing (POCT) strategies, particularly in the resource-limited settings. Here we proposed a low-cost portable microfluidic POCT chemiluminometer for the determination of adiponectin, an effective biomarker of diabetes. The determination is based on the immunoassay on a centrifugal microfluidic chip made of polycarbonate with 40 parallel detection microchannels. Centrifugation assisted washing processes made the entire immunoassay workflow semi-automatic and easy to perform. The chemiluminescence signal was recorded by a specially designed portable chemiluminometer. The whole set of the device costs less than $600 and weighs only 0.5 kg, which is suitable for POCT use. A limit of detection of 2.7 ng/ml was achieved with a linear response up to 70.5 ng/ml (R2 = 0.975) for serum adiponectin, covering the physiological blood adiponectin levels. Successful determination of adiponectin in six clinical specimens was demonstrated by a comparison with standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.