Bead-based microfluidic immunoassay for diagnosis of Johne's disease

Microfluidics technology offers a platform for development of point-of-care diagnostic devices for various infectious diseases. In this study, we examined whether serodiagnosis of Johne's disease (JD) can be conducted in a bead-based microfluidic assay system. Magnetic micro-beads were coated with antigens of the causative agent of JD, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. The antigen-coated beads were incubated with serum samples of JD-positive or negative serum samples and then with a fluorescently-labeled secondary antibody (SAB). To confirm binding of serum antibodies to the antigen, the beads were subjected to flow cytometric analysis. Different conditions (dilutions of serum and SAB, types of SAB, and types of magnetic beads) were optimized for a large degree of differentiation between the JD-negative and JD-positive samples. Using the optimized conditions, we tested a well-classified set of 155 serum samples from JD-negative and JD-positive cattle by using the bead-based flow cytometric assay. Of 105 JD-positive samples, 63 samples (60%) showed higher antibody binding levels than a cut-off value determined by using antibody binding levels of JD-negative samples. In contrast, only 43-49 JD-positive samples showed higher antibody binding levels than the cut-off value when the samples were tested using commercially-available immunoassays. Microfluidic assays were performed by magnetically immobilizing a number of beads within a microchannel of a glass microchip and detecting antibody on the collected beads using laser-induced fluorescence. Antigen-coated magnetic beads treated with the bovine serum sample and fluorescently-labeled SAB were loaded into a microchannel to measure the fluorescence (reflecting level of antibody binding) on the beads in the microfluidic system. When the results of five bovine serum samples with the microfluidic system were compared to those analyzed with the flow cytometer, a high level of correlation (linear regression, r2 = 0.994) was observed. In a further experiment, we magnetically immobilized antigen-coated beads in a microchannel, reacted the beads with serum and SAB in the channel, and detected antibody binding to the beads in the microfluidic system. A strong antibody binding in JD-positive serum was detected, whereas there was only negligible binding in negative control experiments. Our data suggest that the bead-based microfluidic system may form a basis for development of an on-site serodiagnosis of JD.