Iodide based electrochemical gold quantification method for lateral flow assays
Abstract
The lateral flow assay (LFA) is an ideal technology for at-home medical diagnostic tests due to its ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and rapid results. Despite these advantages, only few LFAs, such as the pregnancy and COVID-19 tests, have been translated from the laboratory to the homes of patients. To date, the medical applicability of LFAs is limited by the fact that they only provide yes/no answers unless combined with optical readers that are too expensive for at-home applications. Furthermore, LFAs are unable to compete with the state-of-the-art technologies in centralized laboratories in terms of detection limits. To address those shortcomings, we have developed an electrochemical readout procedure to enable quantitative and sensitive LFAs. This technique is based on a voltage-triggered in-situ dissolution of gold nanoparticles, the conventional label used to visualize target-specific signals on the test line in LFAs. Following the dissolution, the amount of gold is measured by electroplating onto an electrode and subsequent electrochemical quantification of the deposited gold. The measured current has a low noise, which achieves superior detection limits compared to optical techniques where background light scattering is limiting the readout performance. In addition, the hardware for the readout was developed to demonstrate translatability towards low-cost electronics. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000682781Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Biosensors and BioelectronicsVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
ElsevierMore
Show all metadata
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics