Proteome Analysis of Whole Blood Collected by Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling
Molloy et al.
The finding, in our words
Volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) of whole blood allows depletion of abundant red-cell proteins during processing, which improves detection of less abundant proteins from all blood compartments and yields deeper proteomic coverage than conventional plasma analysis alone.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In a nationwide survey of 1047 Belgian adults, at-home VAMS achieved a 63% participation-to-analysis completion rate with 16% of samples excluded due to insufficient quality. While dietary intake suggested adequate thiamine consumption, 11% of participants had blood thiamine diphosphate concentrations below the reference threshold, showing the utility of remote microsampling for identifying true nutritional status.
Folate vitamer stability in dried blood microsamples was strongly dependent on temperature and time, with levels remaining within 85 to 115 per cent of baseline at -20°C and 4°C for up to two weeks in both VAMS and DBS, but only lasting three days at room temperature in VAMS and failing at 37°C. The authors conclude that decentralised sampling for folate status monitoring is feasible if transport temperature and duration are controlled, though pretreatment with stabilising agents and desiccant use offered only partial improvement at ambient temperature.
A UHPLC-HRMS assay quantified 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 and D3 from 20 µL Mitra VAMS samples with accuracy under 10% and precision under 11%, LOQ 5 ng/mL: sensitive enough to flag deficiency and simple enough for untrained self-collection, enabling year-round vitamin-D monitoring.
Researchers successfully validated an analytical method for measuring creatinine across plasma and volumetric absorptive microsampling devices, demonstrating strong correlation between conventional plasma and dried microsamples. This provides a reliable, patient-centric approach for monitoring kidney function remotely during transplant follow-up.
This review found that volumetric microsampling devices, such as Mitra, HemaPEN, HemaXis DB10, and Tasso-M20, overcome haematocrit bias, whilst Telimmune plasma separation cards enable direct plasma collection without centrifugation. These technologies support patient-centric, decentralised sampling, though the authors note that clinical validation remains limited across different drugs and patient populations.