Development of a microfluidic device to evaluate protein digestibility and allergic response

Abstract

The present proposal is part of the Novel Aging thematic grant (Technologies and solutions to manufacture novel dairy products for healthy aging/FAPESP 2017/01189-0). This project has the goal of developing a microfluidic device able to simulate the human digestion (oral and gastric phase) of unmodified milk proteins, evaluating the digestion efficiency by nESI-MS and the allergic response to bioactive peptides by creating a biosensor with C4D detection. The digestion will be simulated on a microfluidic device following a standardized protocol for food digestion. It will be evaluated parameters as enzyme concentrations, pH, digestion time, and salt concentrations. The digestion microfluidic chamber will be coupled online with a microfluidic electrophoresis system, which will be low-cost manufactured by polyester toner and laser printer. After separation of the peptides and amino acids by electrophoresis, the species will be collected on an output and destined to nESI-MS analysis and biosensing detection. In this stage, it will be tested the feasibility of online integration of the microfluidic device with the detection modes. The biosensor will be created by the immobilization of anti-²-lactoglobulin on the surface of the electrode. The capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector will register differences in conductivity when the allergen attach to it. The conditions of the experiments will resemble the digestion state of elderly, seeking to provide data for the development of dairy products meeting the nutrients requirements of this population class. It is believed that the lab-on-a-chip proposed here, once successfully developed and improved, will be a step forward regarding the elderly malnutrition research scenario. (AU)