An alternating current electrokinetics biosensor for rapid on-site serological screening of Taenia solium cysticercosis infection

Cysticercosis, caused by Taenia solium infection, is a leading cause of acquired epilepsy in many developing countries. Several types of immunoassays have been developed for the detection of Taenia solium infection in both infected humans and livestock animals. However, these methods require central laboratory facilities and are both time- and labor-consuming with longer than desired turnaround time. In this work, we demonstrated that AC electrokinetics (ACEK) capacitive sensing can be used to realize point-of-care immunosensor in general, with the on-site screening of Taenia solium infection as an example here. The sensor employs interdigitated microelectrodes (IDME) functionalized with a recombinant Taenia solium antigen, rT24H, to detect anti-rT24H antibodies in clinical serum samples. ACEK capacitive sensing method interrogates the IDME sensors with a special AC signal, which serves the dual purposes of enriching target antibodies by ACEK effects and directly measuring the capacitance change induced by specific binding. First, to characterize the ACEK biosensor as an immunosensor in general, IgG in phosphate-buffered saline buffer was tested against IDME sensors functionalized with anti-IgG. The limit of detection of the sensor was 24.1 fg/mL, and the linear dynamic range was 0.1–100 pg/mL. To test the clinical usage of this sensor, ACEK capacitive sensors with rT24H probe were used to test clinical serum samples from patients with or without Taenia solium infection. The diagnostic sensitivity of the ACEK capacitive sensor for Taenia solium infection was found to be 88.24%. ACEK capacitive immunosensors have shown good potential for point-of-care diagnostics. Graphical Abstract