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Published on: June 28, 2024
Near-Infrared Lanthanide-Doped Nanoparticles for a Low Interference Lateral Flow Immunoassay Test
Qingyun Liu1, Shengming Cheng1, Rui Chen1
1Department of Chemistry , Institutes of Biomedicine Sciences , State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers , and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials , Fudan University , 220 Handan Road , Shanghai 200433 , P.R. China.
Insights
Near-infrared lanthanide-doped nanoparticles (NIR-RENPs) improve lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) tests. This new near-infrared lateral flow immunoassay (NIR-LFT) platform reduces background noise for more accurate disease diagnosis.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Analytical Chemistry
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Lateral flow immunoassay tests (LFIA) are vital point-of-care diagnostics due to speed and portability.
- Traditional fluorescence reporters in LFIA suffer from background interference in biological samples (e.g., blood).
- Ultraviolet and visible light used by conventional reporters are absorbed and scattered by samples, reducing accuracy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel near-infrared lateral flow immunoassay (NIR-LFT) platform.
- To enhance LFIA sensitivity and accuracy by overcoming background signal interference.
- To introduce near-infrared lanthanide-doped nanoparticles (NIR-RENPs) as superior reporters.
Main Methods:
- Developed a NIR-LFT platform utilizing NIR-RENPs as fluorescence reporters.
- Replaced traditional ultraviolet/visible light reporters with NIR-RENPs.
- Evaluated the performance of NIR-RENPs in biological samples like blood.
Main Results:
- NIR-RENPs significantly reduce background noise and signal attenuation in biological samples.
- The NIR-LFT platform demonstrates improved sensitivity and accuracy compared to traditional LFIA.
- NIR-RENPs offer enhanced stability over conventional near-infrared organic dyes.
Conclusions:
- NIR-RENPs are effective reporters for developing advanced LFIA.
- The NIR-LFT platform offers a promising solution for more accurate and sensitive point-of-care diagnostics.
- This technology is well-suited for commercial applications requiring reliable disease detection.
Abstract:
The lateral flow immunoassay test (LFT), as a method of a point of care test, is widely used in disease diagnosis, food security, and environment observation due to its portability and testing rapidity. A fluorescence lateral flow immunoassay was developed recently to enhance the sensitivity and accuracy of the LFT. However, for most fluorescence reporters, their emission and excitation wavelengths are located in the ultraviolet or visible region. Serum or whole blood significantly absorbs and scatters light of this region, and this will result in background signal interference. In this study, we replace traditional fluorescence reporters with near-infrared lanthanide-doped nanoparticles (NIR-RENPs) to establish a NIR-LFT platform. Blood and other biological samples scatter and absorb less near-infrared light than visible light, and the autofluorescence of biological samples is rarely located in this region. Therefore, using NIR light as a signal can diminish the interference of background noise and suffer from less signal attenuation. In addition, compared with commonly used NIR organic dye, NIR-RENPs have better stability. It is promising that lateral flow immunoassays based on NIR lanthanide-doped nanoparticles are able to acquire a lower detection limit and better accuracy, and they are more suitable for application in commercial settings.

