Economical and Easily Obtainable Tools to Manually Develop Lateral Flow Immunoassay Strips

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Immunodiagnostics
• Point-of-Care Testing

Background:

• Lateral flow devices (LFDs) are crucial for rapid diagnostics but often rely on expensive manufacturing.
• High costs limit LFD accessibility, especially in resource-limited settings and during urgent health crises.
• Developing affordable LFDs is essential for global health equity and pandemic preparedness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create inexpensive, highly functional in-house lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) strips.
• To overcome cost barriers associated with conventional LFD manufacturing technologies.
• To provide accessible diagnostic tools for detecting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in serum samples.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of LFIA strips using readily available, low-cost materials like adhesive tape and CytoSep layers.
• Manual assembly of the lateral flow strips to ensure simplicity and affordability.
• Testing the developed LFIA strips for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein-specific IgM and IgG antibodies in serum.

Main Results:

• The in-house developed LFIA strips achieved high sensitivity: 93.3% for IgM and 96.6% for IgG antibodies.
• Excellent specificity was observed: 96.6% for IgM and 100% for IgG antibodies.
• The assay required only a small sample volume (5 μL of serum).

Conclusions:

• Manually produced, low-cost lateral flow strips offer a viable alternative for antibody detection.
• This method enhances the accessibility of essential diagnostic tools for global populations.
• The developed LFIA strips are suitable for widespread use, particularly in resource-limited environments.