Evaluation of three fluorescent lateral flow assay platforms for the detection of leptin, adiponectin, and insulin in mexican adults and pediatric populations

Abstract

Obesity is a major public health concern on a global scale. In Mexico, the prevalence of obesity among adults was 36.9% in 2022, while rates among children and adolescents were 18.1% and 17.2%, respectively. The prevalence of adult obesity in Mexico ranks among the highest in the world and is closely associated with the development of chronic diseases and metabolic syndrome. While body mass index (BMI) remains the standard metric for obesity, it fails to reflect metabolic health accurately. Public health policies are moving towards overweight and obesity prevention during childhood to avoid complications later in life. Effective treatment and management of this disease requires novel monitoring tools to help improve the assessment of metabolic status and associated health risks. Leptin, adiponectin, and insulin are three protein hormones closely related to each other. They are involved in energy expenditure regulation, lipid and glucose metabolism, and immune response and inflammation. The altered levels of these proteins are linked to coronary disease, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and cancer, all of which are related to the correct function of adipose tissue. Lateral flow assays (LFA) provide inexpensive, easy to use, and portable alternative to classical biomarker detection techniques. In collaboration between the Bioengineering and Medical Devices Unit of the Institute for Obesity Research at Tecnológico de Monterrey and Dr. Richard Willson’s team from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Houston, three fluorescence-based lateral flow assays have been developed for the detection of leptin, adiponectin, and insulin. This thesis aims to validate the performance of three LFA for the detection of leptin, adiponectin, and insulin by analyzing samples from Mexican adult and pediatric participants and comparing the results to concentration values obtained through ELISA.