New HIV Test Uses Only USB Stick, Drop of Blood

Researchers working on HIV testing have developed a new technology that can be loaded onto a USB drive for testing for and monitoring HIV infection. The device would be accessible for every country, including ones with limited resources, and would reduce the need for costly laboratory based testing.

The research team at Imperial college London worked with hardware developer DNA Electronics to develop “a novel complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip based, pH-mediated, point-of-care HIV-1 Viral load monitoring assay that simultaneously amplifies and detects HIV-1 RNA.” The program was designed to work in low buffer conditions and can operate with any hand-held computer device configured for the CMOS chip, reducing the need for extensive laboratory equipment and skilled calibration or maintenance.
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To study the sensitivity of the device, the researchers analyzed 991 plasma samples. When built into a USB stick, the sensitivity of the device was 88.8% and the specificity was 95%. The maximum amount of time for testing was 50 minutes.

Further development and testing is needed to determine the effectiveness of the device in the field. However, researchers believe the CMOS chip shows great potential for detecting HIV and monitoring the diseases, and may even be programmed for detecting other diseases in the future.

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Gurrala R, Lang Z, Shepherd L, et al. Novel pH sensing semiconductor for point-of-care detection of HIV-1 viremia [published online November 10, 2016]. Scientific Reports. doi: 10.1038/srep36000.