Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM detection with a GMR based LFIA system

Since December 2019, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused millions of deaths and seriously threatened the safety of human life; indeed, this situation is worsening and many people are infected with the new coronavirus every day. Therefore, it is very important to understand patients' degree of infection and infection history through antibody testing. Such information is useful also for the government and hospitals to formulate reasonable prevention policies and treatment plans. In this paper, we develop a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) method based on superparamagnetic nanoparticles (SMNPs) and a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensing system for the simultaneously quantitative detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin M (IgM) and G (IgG). A simple and time-effective co-precipitation method was utilized to prepare the SMNPs, which have good dispersibility and magnetic property, with an average diameter of 68 nm. The Internet of Medical Things-supported GMR could transmit medical data to a smartphone through the Bluetooth protocol, making patient information available for medical staff. The proposed GMR system, based on SMNP-supported LFIA, has an outstanding advantage in cost-effectiveness and time-efficiency, and is easy to operate. We believe that the suggested GMR based LFIA system will be very useful for medical staff to analyze and to preserve as a record of infection in COVID-19 patients.