Development of a new optical biosensor for the detection of sepsis using mid-regional pro-adrenomedullin as a biomarker

Abstract

Sepsis is one of the main causes of death worldwide. It is a serious condition in which an infection triggers an extreme immune inflammatory response in the body which may lead to organ dysfunction. If the blood pressure drops sufficiently, the condition may progress to multiple organ failure and, in extreme cases, death. This is called septic shock. Every hour sepsis goes without treatment represents an 8% increase in the risk of mortality. In the United States of America alone, 250,000 people die of sepsis every year. This project has as its aim to develop a multiplexed point-of-care device capable of accurately diagnosing sepsis within a 20-minute timeframe. This would allow the appropriate treatment to be administered in record time, drastically augmenting the chances of survival of the patient. This technology would not require trained personnel, making it more accessible and economic than current detection methods. This work focuses on the development of a new optical biosensor for the detection of mid-regional pro-adrenomedullin, a promising biomarker for sepsis. A comparison is made between using two different chip covering surfaces, gold and aluminium. Furthermore, a study of the behaviour of human serum on the proposed biosensor is performed, looking towards the future goal of detecting pro-adrenomedullin in real patient samples