Research Projects

Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is a chronic liver disease with a projected mortality of 44% worldwide. It progresses to severe health conditions, such as cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and viral hepatitis, when left untreated in the early stages, wherein there are no indicative physiological symptoms. However, NAFLD is reversible in its initial stages via lifestyle management and medications. The conventional methods for screening the various grades of NAFLD (chromatography, ELISA tests, biopsy and fibroscan) are time consuming, invasive, expensive, complex and less accessible in low-resource areas. Thus, there’s a dire need to develop rapid, non-invasive and user-friendly early screening methods for NAFLD, to monitor its prognosis, and seek timely medical advice. To this end, we propose a self-powered paper-based electrochemical sensing system enabled by IoT for the early screening of NAFLD via the sensing of salivary lactate, bilirubin (BR), hyaluronic acid (HA), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1. The detection of biomarkers in saliva enables non-invasive sensing ensuring patient comfort. Elevated lactate (above 0.2 mM) and BR levels (above 0.07mg/dL) in saliva indicate progression of NAFLD, while HA (above 459.2 ng/mL), TIMP-1 and ALP (above 20-140 IU/L) are upregulated in fibrosis and cirrhosis. The main objectives are (i) development of paper fuel cells (PFC-1) powered by lactate/O₂ (self-powered electrochemical sensor (SPES)) and in-house potentiostat powered by PFC-2 (lactate/H₂O₂ ) (ii) development of paper-based electrochemical sensors (PES) for the detection of BR, ALP, HA and TIMP-1 (iii) Validation of the electrochemical sensors with real (healthy and control) samples (correlation with serum levels) and (iv) Integration of the PFC, PES with IoT components (bluetooth device, electronics, mobile phone, in-house Potentiostat). The sensing system, namely, LIV-PAPSENS, uptakes the saliva samples from the user, selectively detects the key biomarkers via the PFC-1 and PES, processes the sensor signal via an Arduino nano module and presents the test results to the user on a mobile phone. The system is self-powered by a PFC, which harnesses the power from the (lactate containing) saliva sample of the user, while simultaneously measuring the lactate levels. It also consists of PESs, which sense the BR, HA, ALP and TIMP-1 levels and are potential-biased via an in-house potentiostat. The sensors, in-house potentiostat, Arduino nano module and the mobile phone are interfaced via a bluetooth device, enabling an IoT-based sensing system. The sensors’ electrochemical performance will be first measured in buffer samples to determine their sensitivity, selectivity, detection limits, reproducibility, shelf-life and reusability. The electrochemical measurements will be first carried out on a portable electrochemical analyzer via cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Post this, the portable analyzer will be replaced by the in-house potentiostat. Next, the reliability of the sensors for real samples will be assessed via recovery calculations (above 95%). Finally, the IoT components will be integrated together to perform the measurements in buffer and real saliva samples. Alongside obtaining the saliva samples from healthy individuals, we will assess the system performance with control samples, i.e., samples from different grades of NAFLD, namely, fatty liver, steatohepatitis, fibrosis and cirrhosis. The results will be correlated with the serum levels and fibroscan by statistical analysis (Pearson’s or Spearman’s correlation coefficient). This will allow a comprehensive validation of the proposed system, LIV-PAPSENS. It will enable non-invasive, rapid, affordable and early screening of NAFLD with a user-friendly and transformative approach.