Development of a surface enhanced Raman scattering lateral flow immunoassay with prolonged reproducibility and...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIA) offer rapid diagnostics but often lack quantitative precision.
• Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) provides high sensitivity but faces challenges in reproducibility and stability for point-of-care (POC) applications.
• Existing SERS-LFIA technologies struggle with consistent performance over time, hindering clinical adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the performance, stability, and reproducibility of a new SERS-LFIA for liver injury detection.
• To determine if the SERS-LFIA can yield consistent results after six months of storage.
• To assess the potential of SERS-LFIA for reliable POC diagnostics.

Main Methods:

• Developed a SERS-LFIA incorporating silica-coated, Raman-active gold nanoparticles for enhanced stability with human serum.
• Utilized a handheld Raman reader for SERS signal analysis to simulate POC conditions.
• Assessed reproducibility and signal variation over a 6-month stability study using normalized metrics like test line intensity, test/control ratio, and slope linear regression.

Main Results:

• The SERS-LFIA demonstrated robust performance, with outputs decreasing by only 11% after 5 months for a clinically relevant liver injury biomarker concentration.
• Normalizing results via the slope linear regression method yielded the best reproducibility.
• The study confirmed the stability and robustness of the SERS-LFIA over an extended storage period.

Conclusions:

• The developed SERS-LFIA exhibits significant stability and robustness, maintaining consistent performance for at least five months at room temperature.
• This advancement addresses critical limitations in SERS reproducibility and stability, paving the way for reliable POC diagnostics.
• The SERS-LFIA shows promise for quantitative, sensitive, and stable detection of liver injury biomarkers in clinical settings.