OralDisk: A Chair-Side Compatible Molecular Platform Using Whole Saliva for Monitoring Oral Health at the Dental Practice

• Published in: Biosensors
• Main Authors: Desirée Baumgartner, Benita Johannsen, Mara Specht, Jan Lüddecke, Markus Rombach, Sebastian Hin, Nils Paust, Felix von Stetten, Roland Zengerle, Christopher Herz, Johannes R. Peham, Pune N. Paqué, Thomas Attin, Joël S. Jenzer, Philipp Körner, Patrick R. Schmidlin, Thomas Thurnheer, Florian J. Wegehaupt, Wendy E. Kaman, Andrew Stubbs, John P. Hays, Viorel Rusu, Alex Michie, Thomas Binsl, David Stejskal, Michal Karpíšek, Kai Bao, Nagihan Bostanci, Georgios N. Belibasakis, Konstantinos Mitsakakis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-10-01
• Subjects: dental practice; point-of-care diagnostics; treatment monitoring; oral health; periodontitis; caries
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6374/11/11/423

Periodontitis and dental caries are two major bacterially induced, non-communicable diseases that cause the deterioration of oral health, with implications in patients’ general health. Early, precise diagnosis and personalized monitoring are essential for the efficient prevention and management of these diseases. Here, we present a disk-shaped microfluidic platform (OralDisk) compatible with chair-side use that enables analysis of non-invasively collected whole saliva samples and molecular-based detection of ten bacteria: seven periodontitis-associated (<i>Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans</i>, <i>Campylobacter rectus</i>, <i>Fusobacterium nucleatum</i>, <i>Prevotella intermedia</i>, <i>Porphyromonas gingivalis</i>, <i>Tannerella forsythia</i>, <i>Treponema denticola</i>) and three caries-associated (oral <i>Lactobacilli</i>, <i>Streptococcus mutans</i>, <i>Streptococcus sobrinus</i>). Each OralDisk test required 400 µL of homogenized whole saliva. The automated workflow included bacterial DNA extraction, purification and hydrolysis probe real-time PCR detection of the target pathogens. All reagents were pre-stored within the disk and sample-to-answer processing took < 3 h using a compact, customized processing device. A technical feasibility study (25 OralDisks) was conducted using samples from healthy, periodontitis and caries patients. The comparison of the OralDisk with a lab-based reference method revealed a ~90% agreement amongst targets detected as positive and negative. This shows the OralDisk’s potential and suitability for inclusion in larger prospective implementation studies in dental care settings.