Application of Metal-organic frameworks synthesized by Microfluidics in Microextraction for Metabolomics: development of a non-invasive bioanalytical method for early diagnosis of fatty Liver diseases

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disorder worldwide, which affects to around 25% of the population. It is associated with obesity and diabetes and may lead to chronical liver diseases and cancer.

Its diagnosis and prognosis involve a liver biopsy that entails certain unavoidable risks and errors and present a high cost.

The determination of biomarkers in biological fluids, particularly metabolomics, is one of the most promising tools as an alternative to these more conventional invasive procedures.

Thus, it is important to develop a platform to monitor and diagnose the disease in a wider population as well as to track the disease evolution.

The aim of M4Liver project is to design and fabricate an effective microextraction device for the development of a simple and non-invasive bioanalytical method suitable for the early diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of fatty liver diseases. The method is based on the identification and quantification of biomarkers in plasma samples.

They will be extracted and preconcentrated using a small device coated with a hybrid material with anti-fouling properties, which is composed of a metal-organic framework (MOF) and a polymeric phase. With the aim of ensuring scalability and reproducibility, the MOF particles will be prepared using microfluidics.

Overall, the combination of the preconcentration technique, the impressive MOF sorption capacity and polymer stability in this analytical method will contribute to gain insight into the role of biomarkers in NAFLD.

Moreover, given the simplicity and the possibility of carrying out parallel and fully automatic analysis with this approach, its implementation in routine clinical laboratories as a simple and economical platform is feasible.