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Micropump integrated white blood cell separation platform for detection of chronic granulomatous disease

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Abstract

White blood cells (WBCs) are robust defenders during antigenic challenges and prime immune cell functioning indicators. High-purity WBC separation is vital for various clinical assays and disease diagnosis. Red blood cells (RBCs) are a major hindrance in WBC separation, constituting 1000 times the WBC population. The study showcases a low-cost micropump integrated microfluidic platform to provide highly purified WBCs for point-of-care testing. An integrated user-friendly microfluidic platform was designed to separate WBCs from finger-prick blood (⁓5 μL), employing an inertial focusing technique. We achieved an efficient WBC separation with 86% WBC purity and 99.99% RBC removal rate in less than 1 min. In addition, the microdevice allows lab-on-chip colorimetric evaluation of chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), a rare genetic disorder affecting globally. The assay duration, straight from separation to disease detection, requires only 20 min. Hence, the proposed microfluidic platform can further be implemented to streamline various clinical procedures involving WBCs in healthcare industries.

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Data availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary material. Raw data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the technical support for manufacturing microchannel mold from Mr. Hemeshwar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bits Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus. We want to acknowledge the Department of Biological Sciences, BITS-Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa campus for BD-FACS Cell Sorter equipment sponsored by DST-FIST for sample analysis under the assistance of Mr. Tushar Honwarkar.

Funding

This work was supported by BITS BioCyTiH foundation under grant BBF/BITS (G)/FY2022-23/BCPS-115, covered by National Mission for Interdisciplinary- Cyber Physical System (NM-ICPS) of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (D.O: DST/NM-ICPS/MGB/2018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS-Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Sankval, Goa, 403726, India

    Sanjay Mane, Abhishek Behera, Vadiraj Hemadri & Siddhartha Tripathi

  2. Department of Chemistry, BITS-Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Sankval, Goa, 403726, India

    Sunil Bhand

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  1. Sanjay Mane
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Contributions

Sanjay Mane: conceptualization, methodology, writing—original draft preparation. Abhishek Behera: investigation, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft preparation. Vadiraj Hemadri: formal analysis, investigation. Sunil Bhand: resources, funding acquisition. Siddhartha Tripathi: conceptualization, supervision, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Siddhartha Tripathi.

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Ethics approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Human Ethical Committee, Bits-Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus (EC Registration No.: EC/NEW/INST/2023/3297) and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. All blood samples were tested for infectious illnesses before being used.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Mane, S., Behera, A., Hemadri, V. et al. Micropump integrated white blood cell separation platform for detection of chronic granulomatous disease. Microchim Acta 191, 295 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-024-06372-7

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