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. 2018 Nov 7;8(1):16508.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-34781-1.

Closed-type pre-treatment device for point-of-care testing of sputum

Hyun-Ju Park  1 , Ayoung Woo  1 , Jae Min Cha  2 , Kyu-Sung Lee  3   4   5 , Min-Young Lee  6   7
Affiliations

Closed-type pre-treatment device for point-of-care testing of sputum

Hyun-Ju Park et al. Sci Rep. .

Erratum in

Abstract

The procedures and protocols for the pre-treatment of sputum specimens, mainly used for the diagnosis of pneumonia, are complex, labor intensive, and require skilled specialists working in a biosafety containment laboratory because of sample infectivity. In this study, we developed the first portable, low-power pre-treatment device that carries out all sputum pre-treatment procedures (liquefaction, homogenization, dissolution, and inactivation) in an enclosed space. Designed to simultaneously employ chemical and mechanical dissolution in the enclosed chamber, this device eliminates the risk of transmission and improves the effectiveness of sputum dissolution and pathogen detection. This device is expected to allow for the pre-treatment of infectious sputum specimens outside of a biosafety containment laboratory. Used in conjunction with automated genome extraction and detection systems, this device should make the on-site diagnosis using infectious sputum specimens possible.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of the closed-type pre-treatment device. (a) The device comprises 1) a sample collection and chemical reagent chamber, 2) a mechanical lysis chamber, and 3) a magnet-driven blade rotation device in an enclosed chamber. (b) Photograph of the actual device.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Sputum liquefaction. (a) Photograph comparing sputum samples treated as follows: R, unliquefied raw sample; S, liquefied using the standard lysis method; C, liquefied using the closed type pre-treatment device. (b) Sample viscosities. (c) Sample absorbance at 600 nm. (d) Microscopic images of samples.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cell viability and DNA extraction. (a) Cell viability. (b) Yield of DNA extracted (left) and DNA purity (right) using the standard lysis method and closed-type pre-treatment device.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of mycobacterial DNA extraction and amplification between treatment methods. (a) Amplifiable DNA quantified by qPCR (left) and Ct value (right) using standard lysis method (S) and closed-type pre-treatment device (C) (operating time: 30, 60, or 120 s). (b) Agarose gel electrophoresis of amplified DNA. The full-length gel is presented in Supplementary Figure S3.
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