Rapid detection of an Ebola biomarker with optical microring resonators
Abraham J. Qavi, Krista Meserve, M. Javad Aman, Hong Vu, Larry Zeitlin, John M. Dye, Jeffrey W. Froude, Daisy W. Leung, Lan Yang, Frederick W. Holtsberg, Ryan C. Bailey, Gaya K. Amarasinghe
Abstract
Ebola virus (EBOV) is a highly infectious pathogen, with a case mortality rate as high as 89%. Rapid therapeutic treatments and supportive measures can drastically improve patient outcome; however, the symptoms of EBOV disease (EVD) lack specificity from other endemic diseases. Given the high mortality and significant symptom overlap, there is a critical need for sensitive, rapid diagnostics for EVD. Facile diagnosis of EVD remains a challenge. Here, we describe a rapid and sensitive diagnostic for EVD through microring resonator sensors in conjunction with a unique biomarker of EBOV infection, soluble glycoprotein (sGP). Microring resonator sensors detected sGP in under 40 min with a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 1.00 ng/mL in serum. Furthermore, we validated our assay with the detection of sGP in serum from EBOV-infected non-human primates. Our results demonstrate the utility of a high-sensitivity diagnostic platform for detection of sGP for diagnosis of EVD.