PoCOsteo: generic novel platform for bone turnover marker measurement & monitoring

Despite the increasing efforts in improving bone health assessments, current diagnostics suffer from critical shortcomings. The present article therefore describes a multiplex label-free immunosensor designed and validated for the assessment of two bone turnover markers (BTMs), namely beta isomerized C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTx) and Procollagen I Intact N-Terminal (PINP), the combination of which is needed to illustrate an accurate overview of bone health. The immunosensor was then tested outside and inside of a microsystem, with the aim of becoming compatible with a point of care system fabricated for automated assessment of these biomarkers later-on at patient side. Custom-made monoclonal antibodies were specifically designed for this purpose in order to guarantee the selectivity of the immunosensor. In the final platform, a finger prick blood sample is introduced into the microfluidic manifolds without any need for sample preparation step, making the tool suitable for near patient and outside of the central laboratory applications. The platform was exploited in 30 real blood samples with the results validated using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. The results revealed the platform was capable of measuring the target analyte with high sensitivity and beyond the recommended clinical reference range for each biomarker (CTx: 104-1028 ng L−1 and PINP: 16-96 μg L−1, correspondingly). They also showed the platform to have a limit of detection of 15 (ng L−1) and 0.66 (μg L−1), a limit of quantification of 49 (ng L−1) and 2.21 (μg L−1), and an inter- and intra-assay coefficient of variance of 5.39-6.97% and 6.81-5.37%, for CTx and PINP respectively, which is comparable with the gold standard. The main advantage of the platform over the state-of-the art was the capability of providing the results for two markers recommended for assessing bone health within 15 minutes and without the need for skilled personnel or costly infrastructure.