Recent advances in sensitivity enhancement for lateral flow assay

Abstract

Conventional lateral flow assay (LFA) is typically performed by observing the color changes in the test lines by naked eyes, which achieves considerable commercial success and has a significant impact on the fields of food safety, environment monitoring, disease diagnosis, and other applications. However, this qualitative detection method is not very suitable for low levels of disease biomarkers’ detection. Although many nanomaterials are used as new labels for LFA, additional readers limit their application to some extent. Fortunately, a lot of work has been done for improving the sensitivity of LFA. In this review, currently reported LFA sensitivity enhancement methods with an objective evaluation are summarized, such as sample pretreatment, the change of flow rate, and label evolution, and future development direction and challenges of LFAs are discussed.

Paper-Based Biosensors for the Detection of Nucleic Acids from Pathogens

“…Nanoparticles offer high amenability in optimizing the detection of nucleic acids on paper, mostly in the form of lateral flow and dip-stick tests [ 158 ]. PCR has traditionally been employed in conjunction with lateral flow assays.…”

A SARS-Cov-2 sensor based on upconversion nanoparticles and graphene oxide

“…Furthermore, implementations might benet from schemes in which further concentration of analytes is achieved through enrichment, ideally combined with a simple lateral ow conguration. 9,24,25 In conclusion, we have demonstrated the construction of a sensor for the detection of a viral oligonucleotide target, a ngerprint of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with high sensitivity and specicity.…”

“…Furthermore, implementations might benefit from schemes in which further concentration of analytes is achieved through enrichment, ideally combined with a simple lateral flow configuration. 9,24,25…”

Research Progress and Future Trends of Microfluidic Paper-Based Analytical Devices in In-Vitro Diagnosis

“…Among them, LFIA-based tests for SARS-CoV-2 are already on the market, but the sensitivity of this method is relatively low. Researchers are working on its sensitivity [ 107 , 108 ].…”