Abstract
The sensitivity and reproducibility of the lateral flow assay can be influenced by multiple factors, such as the size of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) employed. Here, we evaluated the analytical performance of single-sized and mixed-sized GNPs using a simple lateral flow assay (LFA) platform. This platform was used as a model assay to diagnose albumin levels and demonstrate the analytical performance of single-sized and mixed-sized GNPs in LFA tests. Two sizes of GNPs@anti-bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugate proteins were mixed at different ratios. The unique optical properties of the GNPs induced a distinguishing color-shedding effect on the single- and mixed-sized GNPs@anti-BSA conjugates interacting with the target analyte BSA spotted on the test line. The use of mixed-sized GNPs@anti-BSA conjugates enhanced signal relative to the 20 nm GNPs, and provided superior stability compared with solely employing the large GNPs (50 nm). The proposed platform in this study could provide an efficient BSA detection mechanism that can be utilized as a model biomarker for confronting chronic kidney disease.
Highlights
The sensitivity and reproducibility of the lateral flow assay can be influenced by multiple factors, such as the size of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) employed
Since the color formation mechanism stems from light extinction induced by GNPs, the brightness of the detected color in lateral flow assay (LFA) depends on the amount of GNPs adsorbed on the membrane, indicating that the optical response of GNPs has a strong impact on detection sensitivity
The morphologies were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (Figure 2a,b)
Summary
The sensitivity and reproducibility of the lateral flow assay can be influenced by multiple factors, such as the size of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) employed. We evaluated the analytical performance of single-sized and mixed-sized GNPs using a simple lateral flow assay (LFA) platform. Increase in particle diameter exerts a strong non-linear increase on overall extinction. These topics have been extensively studied in the past, see ref. Since the color formation mechanism stems from light extinction induced by GNPs, the brightness of the detected color in LFAs depends on the amount of GNPs adsorbed on the membrane, indicating that the optical response of GNPs has a strong impact on detection sensitivity. It was reported that different sizes of GNPs had different impacts on conjugation efficiency [9,10], and that when different sizes of GNPs are conjugated with the same molecules, the particles
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