Abstracts

Several holistic and interdisciplinary approaches exist to safeguard health and the most influential concepts are One Health evolving to Planetary Health. These approaches promote the underlying assumption of humans and other animals sharing the same planet and the same environmental challenges. The diagnostic devices representing 70-80% of healthcare decisions produce waste accounts for a tenth of all medical waste. Billions of lateral flow tests have been used worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. Single-use, disposable, point-of-care diagnostic devices carry great promise for planetary health, including meeting urgent needs for testing and diagnosis in places, usually under developing Countries with limited laboratory facilities. Point-of-care (POCT)devices are manufactured from unsustainable polymeric materials derived from fossil sources. Yet, in the absence of government regulatory frameworks, safe and sustainable waste management for these medical devices is often left unaddressed. We propose solutions available to point-of-care test developers to start embedding sustainability at an early stage in their design, and to reduce their non-renewable plastic consumption. On the frame of eco-sustainability, as a proof of concept, I will present portable cellulose based device including LFIA characterized by extremely simplicity and robustness, with no power source, electronics, miniaturized to minimize reagents and chemicals, easily to use and at low cost. Chemiluminescence based tests are the more popular in clinical chemistry automated analyzer demonstrating the exceptional performance of the CL based detection using different system i.e. acridinium esters, (iso)uminol. as a labels. CL offers combination of high detectability with fast, accurate and simple instrumentation. The technology transfer from clinical setting to POCT or lab on a chip demonstrated a high analytical performance not fully paralleled by commercial success. The principle of the device is the same of a LFIA , but nitrocellulose and the other pads are replaced by a single cellulose paper and the immunoreagents , The size of the strip is further miniaturized i.e. 2X80 mm . The sample (2-5ul) is added like in LFIA device and travel along the paper pad by capillarity. In the test and control area the CL reagent absorbed on a paper pad are over posed for the CL reaction. Under the pad is placed in contact a light sensitive instant film Fuji or Polaroid or mini self-developing dental film for X ray radiography which are highly sensitive also to light and require a simple pull on the top to start the instant developing process. Using this analogic approach, we eliminate the use of electronics, CMOS, and power supply. The detectability of the used film is similar to conventional smartphone CMOS with B/W or color detection. So no micropumps, microfluidics and the reagent movement is driven and controlled by capillarity according the structure of the material used. In the case of CRET or BRET on multiplex test format with different luciferases the color film offer a quite useful opportunities . If instruments were adapted or redesigned to operate with smaller volumes of blood, it would result in a corresponding reduction in the amount of reagent required. Multiplex format are consider particularly for simultaneous detection of biomarkers in man, animal and environment including air particulate and soil.