title: CD4 quantification based on magneto ELISA for AIDS diagnosis in low resource settings.
abstract: The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) affects the life of millions of people around the world. Although rapid and low cost screening tests are widely available for the diagnosis of HIV infection, the count of CD4+ T lymphocytes remains a drawback in the areas mostly affected by the HIV, being this control imperative for assessing the deterioration of the immunological system and the progression towards AIDS, when the counting of cells falls down 200cellsμL(-1). This paper describes a high-throughput, simple and rapid method for CD4+ T lymphocytes quantification, directly in whole blood, based on a magneto ELISA. The CD4 cells are separated and preconcentrated from whole blood in magnetic particles, and labeled with an enzyme for the optical readout performed with a standard microplate reader. The magneto ELISA is able to reach the whole CD4 counting range of medical interest, being the limit of detection as low as 50 CD4+ cells per μL of whole blood, without any pretreatment. This method is a highly suitable alternative diagnostic tool for the expensive flow cytometry at the community and primary care level, providing a sensitive method but by using instrumentation widely available in low-resource settings laboratories and requiring low-maintenance, as is the case of a microplate reader operated by filters.
authors: Grup de Sensors i Biosensors, Departament de Química, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Carinelli
authors: Laboratori d'Immunologia Cel·lular, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Xufré
authors: Grup de Sensors i Biosensors, Departament de Química, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Alegret
authors: Laboratori d'Immunologia Cel·lular, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Martí
authors: Grup de Sensors i Biosensors, Departament de Química, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain. Electronic address: Isabel.Pividori@uab.cat.
authors: M I
authors: MI
authors: Pividori
keywords: AIDS; CD4 T lymphocyte; CD4 quantification; HIV; Immunomagnetic separation; Magnetic particle; Magneto ELISA