Development of a Point-of-Care system for early diagnostics of genetic diseases

Lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) represent a group of more than 45 genetically inherited diseases caused by the absence or deficiency of one or more specific lysosomal enzymes. Nowadays, there is a lack of reports on fast, reliable methods for the diagnostics of LSDs. Currently applied diagnostic approaches generate many false-negative and false-positive results, which results in classification of patients to inappropriate therapeutic groups. Moreover, these methods are time-consuming (even 20 hours), and are carried out only in a few laboratories in the world. The goal of this work was to develop a method and a tool, a Point-of-Care system, for diagnostics of LSDs. The polymeric microdevice consists of a cell lysis module, a mixing microchannel and an optical detection module. The system enables to determine the activity of α-galactosidase (deficient in Fabry disease), and to reduce the time of analysis to 10 min. Due to its easy fabrication steps and low price, it seems to be a prospective tool for a point-of-care approach.