Detection of viruses directly from the fresh leaves of a Phalaenopsisorchid using a microfluidic system

Early detection of pathogens is crucial for the effective surveillance of diseases. Many efforts have been made to explore methods whichcan detect these pathogens within a short period of time without requiring a tedious protocol. However, these developed methods havedisadvantages such as they are relatively time-consuming or require specialized laboratory facilities. In this work, we have developed anintegrated microfluidic system for rapid and automatic detection of viruses by direct analysis from fresh Phalaenopsis orchid leaves. Theentire protocol, including ribonucleic acid (RNA) purification, reverse transcription loop-mediated-isothermal-amplification (RT-LAMP) andoptical detection by measuring changes in turbidity was performed on a single chip. This is the first time that an integrated microfluidicsystem for the detection of viruses infecting the Phalaenopsis orchid has been demonstrated. The sensitivity of the developed system wasalso explored in this study to validate its performance