Journal Article

TBISTAT: An open-source, wireless portable, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy capable potentiostat for the point-of-care detection of S100B in plasma samples

Villalba, Pedro J., Burgos-Flórez, Francisco, Sanjuán, Marco, Cervera, Eliana, Rodríguez, Alexander, Zucolotto, Valtencir

2022

Overview

Point-of-Care (POC) testing for biomarker detection demands techniques that are easy to use, readily available, low-cost, and with rapid response times. This paper describes the development of a fully open-source, modular, wireless, battery-powered, smartphone-controlled, low-cost potentiostat capable of conducting electrochemical impedance spectroscopy for the electrochemical detection of the S100B protein captured in an ANTI-S100B functionalized thin-film gold interdigitated electrode platform to support traumatic brain injury diagnosis and treatment. EIS results from the developed potentiostat were validated with a commercial benchtop potentiostat by comparing impedance magnitude and phase values along the EIS frequency range. In addition, an experimental design was performed for detecting S100B in spiked human plasma samples with S100B concentrations of clinical utility, and a calibration curve was found for quantifying S100B detection. No statistically significant differences were found between EIS results from the developed potentiostat and the commercial potentiostat. Statistically significant differences in the changes in charge transfer resistance signal between each tested S100B concentration (p < 0.05) were found, with a limit of detection of 35.73 pg/mL. The modularity of the proposed potentiostat allows easier component changes according to the application demands in power, frequency excitation ranges, wireless communication protocol, signal amplification and transduction, precision, and sampling frequency of ADC, among others, when compared to state-of-the-art open-source EIS potentiostats. In addition, the use of minimal, easy acquirable open-source hardware and software, high-level filtering, accurate ADC, Fast Fourier Transform with low spectral leakage, wireless communication, and the simple user interface provides a framework for facilitating EIS analysis and developing new affordable instrumentation for POC biosensors integrated systems.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Antigens / Biology and Life Sciences / Biomarkers / Biosensing Techniques - instrumentation / Biosensing Techniques - methods / Biosensors / Biotechnology / Blood Chemical Analysis - instrumentation / Blood Chemical Analysis - methods / Blood plasma / Brain / Brain Injuries, Traumatic - blood / Brain Injuries, Traumatic - diagnosis / Brain Injuries, Traumatic - pathology / Brain research / Calibration / Charge transfer / Colombia / Design of experiments / Detectors / Dielectric Spectroscopy - instrumentation / Dielectric Spectroscopy - methods / Electric Impedance / Electrochemical analysis / Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy / Electrochemical Techniques - instrumentation / Electrochemistry / Electrodes / Engineering and Technology / Evaluation / Experimental design / Fast Fourier transformations / Fourier analysis / Fourier transforms / Frequency ranges / Gold - chemistry / Head injuries / Humans / Impedance / Injuries / Instrumentation / Low cost / Measurement techniques / Mechanical engineering / Medicine / Medicine and Health Sciences / Modularity / Open source software / Physical Sciences / Point-of-Care Systems / Potentiometry - instrumentation / Potentiometry - methods / Potentiostats / S100 Calcium Binding Protein beta Subunit - analysis / S100 Calcium Binding Protein beta Subunit - blood / S100b protein / Samples / Smartphones / Software / Spectroscopy / Spectrum analysis / Statistical analysis / Statistical methods / Thin films / Trauma Severity Indices / Traumatic brain injury / Wireless communications / Wireless Technology - instrumentation