title: Paper-based sample-to-answer molecular diagnostic platform for point-of-care diagnostics.
abstract: Nucleic acid testing (NAT), as a molecular diagnostic technique, including nucleic acid extraction, amplification and detection, plays a fundamental role in medical diagnosis for timely medical treatment. However, current NAT technologies require relatively high-end instrumentation, skilled personnel, and are time-consuming. These drawbacks mean conventional NAT becomes impractical in many resource-limited disease-endemic settings, leading to an urgent need to develop a fast and portable NAT diagnostic tool. Paper-based devices are typically robust, cost-effective and user-friendly, holding a great potential for NAT at the point of care. In view of the escalating demand for the low cost diagnostic devices, we highlight the beneficial use of paper as a platform for NAT, the current state of its development, and the existing challenges preventing its widespread use. We suggest a strategy involving integrating all three steps of NAT into one single paper-based sample-to-answer diagnostic device for rapid medical diagnostics in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Lembah Pantai, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China; The Key Library of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China.
authors.forename: Jane Ru
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China; The Key Library of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China; School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, PR China; Key Laboratory for Space Bioscience and Biotechnology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, PR China.
authors.forename: Ruihua
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China; Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Hangzhou, PR China; Institute for Translational Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: ShuQi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Lembah Pantai, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Wan Abu Bakar
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Wan Abas
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Lembah Pantai, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: bpingguan@um.edu.my.
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pingguan-Murphy
authors.affiliation: Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China; The Key Library of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China. Electronic address: fengxu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010209:Paper; D000067716:Point-of-Care Testing; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000295:instrumentation
keywords: Amplification; Detection; Nucleic acid extraction; Nucleic acid testing (NAT); Paper-based device; Point of care