Lateral Flow Assay Based on Paper–Hydrogel Hybrid Material for Sensitive Point‐of‐Care Detection of Dengue Virus

Abstract

Paper-based devices have been broadly used for the point-of-care detection of dengue viral nucleic acids due to their simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and readily observable colorimetric readout. However, their moderate sensitivity and functionality have limited their applications. Despite the abovementioned advantages, paper substrates are lacking in their ability to control fluid flow, in contrast to the flow control enabled by polymer substrates (e.g., agarose) with readily tunable pore size and porosity. Herein, taking the benefits from both materials, the authors propose a strategy to create a hybrid substrate by incorporating agarose into the test strip to achieve flow control for optimal biomolecule interactions. As compared to the unmodified test strip, this strategy allows sensitive detection of targets with an approximately tenfold signal improvement. Additionally, the authors showcase the potential of functionality improvement by creating multiple test zones for semi-quantification of targets, suggesting that the number of visible test zones is directly proportional to the target concentration. The authors further demonstrate the potential of their proposed strategy for clinical assessment by applying it to their prototype sample-to-result test strip to sensitively and semi-quantitatively detect dengue viral RNA from the clinical blood samples. This proposed strategy holds significant promise for detecting various targets for diverse future applications.

Lateral and Vertical Flow Assays for Point‐of‐Care Diagnostics

“…Lateral flow assays (LFAs) and vertical flow assays (VFAs) are generally qualitative, rapid diagnostic tests used to detect the presence of target analytes at point‐of‐care (POC) and resource‐limited settings . They have applications in healthcare, agriculture, food safety, forensic science, animal health, and military . The LFA was first reported in 1956; however, it was commercially developed in the early 1970s as a home‐use pregnancy test to analyze urine .…”

Valve‐Enabled Sample Preparation and RNA Amplification in a Coffee Mug for Zika Virus Detection

“…Examples of these products are FTAcard, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] chitosancoated paper, [23,24] glass-fiber paper, [25][26][27][28] and polyethersulfone filter paper. Examples of these products are FTAcard, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] chitosancoated paper, [23,24] glass-fiber paper, [25][26][27][28] and polyethersulfone filter paper.…”

Improved LFIAs for highly sensitive detection of BNP at point-of-care

“…25 However, the existing LFAs are associated with the limitation of poor sensitivity. 11,26 Several methods have been developed to enhance the sensitivity of LFAs, such as sample concentration, [27][28][29][30] thermal contrast, 31 fluidic control, [32][33][34] temperature-humidity technique, 35 probe-based signal enhancement, 23,36 enzyme-based signal amplification 37,38 and electrochemical devices-based enhancement. 39 However, these approaches require either external equipment, 35 high-cost reagents 23,37 or complicated fabrication with multistep procedure, 32 limiting their application for POC testing.…”