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Lysozyme (LYS) is a bacteriolytic enzyme, available in secretions such as saliva, tears and human milk. LYS is an important defence molecule of the innate immune system, and its overexpression can be a consequence of diseases such as leukemia, kidney disease and sarcoidosis. This paper reports on a digital microfluidic-based approach that combines the gold nanoparticle-enhanced chemiluminescence with aptamer interaction to detect human lysozyme into droplets 20 nanoliters in volume. The described method allows identifying LYS with a 44.6 femtomolar limit of detection, using sample volume as low as 1μL and detection time in the range of 10min. We used luminol to generate the chemiluminescence and demonstrated that the compartmentalization of LYS in droplets also comprising gold nanoparticles provided enhanced luminescence. We functionalized the gold nanoparticles with a thiolated aptamer to achieve the required selectivity that allowed us to detect LYS in human serum., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The integration of nucleic acids detection assays in microfluidic devices represents a highly promising approach for the development of convenient, cheap and efficient diagnostic tools for clinical, food safety and environmental monitoring applications. Such tools are expected to operate at the point-of-care and in resource-limited settings. The amplification of the target nucleic acid sequence represents a key step for the development of sensitive detection protocols. The integration in microfluidic devices of the most popular technology for nucleic acids amplifications, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), is significantly limited by the thermal cycling needed to obtain the target sequence amplification. This review provides an overview of recent advances in integration of isothermal amplification methods in microfluidic devices. Isothermal methods, that operate at constant temperature, have emerged as promising alternative to PCR and greatly simplify the implementation of amplification methods in point-of-care diagnostic devices and devices to be used in resource-limited settings. Possibilities offered by isothermal methods for digital droplet amplification are discussed., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)