Smartphone-based Fluorescence System for Protein Aggregates Detection

Detecting and monitoring protein aggregates is important to evaluate disease progression, particularly in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Apart from the evaluation of disease progression, the detection of protein aggregates is used during the manufacturing process of some pharmaceutical formulations because it is extremely important to monitor the levels of protein aggregates given the potential immunogenic responses they can induce in the human body. The systems yet developed to detect these biological entities are often complex, expensive, and, in some cases, require specialized personnel to handle them. Thus, the application of such devices becomes difficult in resource-limited settings. Here we propose a simpler low-cost alternative - a smartphone-based fluorescence detection device - for the detection of protein aggregates. The results obtained with the developed system were consistent with measurements made with a commercial spectrometer, therefore proving the suitability of the proposed device for this application.