Combining portable solar-powered centrifuge to nanoplasmonic sensing chip with smartphone reader for rheumatoid arthritis detection

In this study, we developed a portable solar-powered centrifuge designed to provide access to centrifugation in remote areas of the world with scarce resources. The autoantibodies in patients’ blood, after centrifuging, were evaluated by nanoplamonic chip integrated with smartphone reader for rheumatoid arthritis detection. The centrifuge is capable of providing a yield of around 45% and plasma purity of around 98% with whole blood in approximately 75 s, after which further testing can be carried out. The device is modular and can be used with a variety of parts for different purposes. A novel peptide developed in our previous study, after thiol group modifying, was conjugated to nanoplasmonic sensing chip. The change of nanoplamonic emitted from sensing chip before/after autoantibody capturing can be evaluated by analyzing red color intensity of the images of the nanoplasmonic captured by smartphone. We demonstrated that the device is capable of working under different conditions and requires minimal energy, which can be generated by a simple solar panel to increase accessibility in areas without electricity. Further, the nanoplasmonic sensing chip, analyzing by image method and images captured by smartphone microscope, showed potential to implement in powerless area as well.