Optical Detection of Heparin in Whole Blood Samples Using Nanosensors Embedded in an Agarose Hydrogel

• DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.2c02154
• Publication Date: 2022-12-02T16:45:57Z
• Authors: Robin Nussbaum; Kye J. Robinson; Yoshiki Soda; Eric Bakker
• Keywords: Nanosensor; Absorbance; Agarose

Point-of-care quantification of the anticoagulant heparin still remains a significant clinical challenge as reference method (colorimetric anti-factor Xa assay) cannot be performed in whole blood. Our group recently put forth novel optical nanosensing principle using an ionic solvatochromic dye signal transducer. These nanosensors demonstrated significantly improved selectivity and sensitivity compared to ion-exchange-type polyion enabled protamine/heparin blood plasma samples. However, because readout is absorbance-based, they are not suitable for measurements. To overcome background absorbance blood, were here embedded agarose hydrogel capable filtering out red cells while allowing components diffuse into gel. Calibration curves both protamine successfully obtained buffer, undiluted plasma, different colorimetric image analysis methods simple experimental setup.