Nanometal surface energy transfer-based lateral flow immunoassay for T2 toxin detection

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Biotechnology
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIA) are widely used for rapid detection.
• Improving the sensitivity of LFIA remains a key challenge for detecting low-concentration analytes.
• Nanometal surface energy transfer (NSET) offers potential for enhanced signal generation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between fluorescence quenching efficiency and detection sensitivity in NSET-LFIA systems.
• To optimize NSET parameters for improved sensitivity in LFIA.
• To develop an ultrasensitive NSET-LFIA for small molecule detection.

Main Methods:

• Incorporation of nanometal surface energy transfer (NSET) into lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA).
• Development and characterization of nine gold nanoparticles (GNPs) as acceptors and quantum dot microspheres (QDMs) as donors.
• Analysis of 27 donor-acceptor pairs to correlate overlap integral area, fluorescence quenching efficiency, and detection sensitivity.

Main Results:

• A maximum fluorescence quenching efficiency of 91.0% was achieved with GNPs (605 nm) and QDMs (610 nm).
• Larger overlap integral areas between donor and acceptor resulted in higher quenching efficiency and sensitivity.
• The developed NSET-LFIA detected T2 toxin with a limit of detection of 0.04 ng/mL, a 10-fold improvement over conventional GNP-LFIA.

Conclusions:

• NSET significantly enhances the sensitivity of LFIA.
• The optimized NSET-LFIA is a versatile and ultrasensitive tool for small molecule screening.
• This approach provides a valuable method for improving detection limits in diagnostic assays.