Paper-based upconversion fluorescence aptasensor for the quantitative detection of immunoglobulin E in human serum

Immunoglobulin E (IgE), a biomarker of allergic diseases, plays a critical role in allergic mechanism. Because of its low abundance in serum, the demand of developing sensitive, selective and simple methods for IgE detection is still very urgent. Paper-based analytical devices using upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) as the label can be promising point-of-care test (POCT) methods in rapid diagnosis, owing to their NIR-excitation and visible light emission nature, which can avoid the interference of autofluorescence and scattering light from biological samples and paper substrates. In this work, we proposed a paper-based analytical device for the sensitive, selective and accurate detection of total immunoglobulin E (IgE) in human serum. The assay was based on resonance energy transfer between UCNPs and organic dye tetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA), and IgE aptamer with stem-loop structure was used as the recognizing probe. The existence of IgE change the conformation of IgE aptamer, enlarge the distance between donor and acceptor, and block the energy transfer process. Thus, the luminescence of UCNPs recovered with an IgE concentration independent manner. A linear calibration was obtained in the range of 0.5-50 IU/mL, with a detection limit of 0.13 IU/mL. The results of our method were well correlated with that of commercial ELISA kit (20 human serum samples). This work suggests promising prospect of the paper-based UC-LRET analytical devices in real samples and may promote the application of paper-based analytical devices in clinical diagnosis.