A Customized Microfluidic Paper-Based Platform for Colorimetric Immunosensing: Demonstrated via hCG Assay for Pregnancy Test
Over the past decades, paper-based lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) have been extensively developed for rapid, facile, and low-cost detection of a wide array of target analytes in a point-of-care manner. Conventional home pregnancy tests are the most significant example of LFAs, which detect elevat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Biosensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6374/11/12/474 |
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| author | Mohammad Rahbar Siyi Zou Mahroo Baharfar Guozhen Liu |
| author_facet | Mohammad Rahbar Siyi Zou Mahroo Baharfar Guozhen Liu |
| author_sort | Mohammad Rahbar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Over the past decades, paper-based lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) have been extensively developed for rapid, facile, and low-cost detection of a wide array of target analytes in a point-of-care manner. Conventional home pregnancy tests are the most significant example of LFAs, which detect elevated concentrations of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) in body fluids to identify early pregnancy. In this work, we have upgraded these platforms to a higher version by developing a customized microfluidic paper-based analytical device (μPAD), as the new generation of paper-based point-of-care platforms, for colorimetric immunosensing. This will offer a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly alternative platform for paper-based immunosensing, eliminating the need for nitrocellulose (NC) membrane as the substrate material. The performance of the developed platform is demonstrated by detection of hCG (as a model case) in urine samples and subsequently indicating positive or negative pregnancy. A dual-functional silane-based composite was used to treat filter paper in order to enhance the colorimetric signal intensity in the detection zones of μPADs. In addition, microfluidic pathways were designed in a manner to provide the desired regulated fluid flow, generating sufficient incubation time (delays) at the designated detection zones, and consequently enhancing the obtained signal intensity. The presented approaches allow to overcome the existing limitations of μPADs in immunosensing and will broaden their applicability to a wider range of assays. Although, the application of the developed hCG μPAD assay is mainly in qualitative (i.e., positive or negative) detection of pregnancy, the semi-quantitative measurement of hCG was also investigated, indicating the viability of this assay for sensitive detection of the target hCG analyte within the related physiological range (i.e., 10–500 ng/mL) with a LOD value down to 10 ng/mL. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:32:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9000a8f849b7458595dce61a6aea1187 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2079-6374 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:32:55Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Biosensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-9000a8f849b7458595dce61a6aea11872023-11-23T04:01:24ZengMDPI AGBiosensors2079-63742021-11-01111247410.3390/bios11120474A Customized Microfluidic Paper-Based Platform for Colorimetric Immunosensing: Demonstrated via hCG Assay for Pregnancy TestMohammad Rahbar0Siyi Zou1Mahroo Baharfar2Guozhen Liu3Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, AustraliaSchool of Life and Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518172, ChinaGraduate School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, AustraliaGraduate School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, AustraliaOver the past decades, paper-based lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) have been extensively developed for rapid, facile, and low-cost detection of a wide array of target analytes in a point-of-care manner. Conventional home pregnancy tests are the most significant example of LFAs, which detect elevated concentrations of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) in body fluids to identify early pregnancy. In this work, we have upgraded these platforms to a higher version by developing a customized microfluidic paper-based analytical device (μPAD), as the new generation of paper-based point-of-care platforms, for colorimetric immunosensing. This will offer a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly alternative platform for paper-based immunosensing, eliminating the need for nitrocellulose (NC) membrane as the substrate material. The performance of the developed platform is demonstrated by detection of hCG (as a model case) in urine samples and subsequently indicating positive or negative pregnancy. A dual-functional silane-based composite was used to treat filter paper in order to enhance the colorimetric signal intensity in the detection zones of μPADs. In addition, microfluidic pathways were designed in a manner to provide the desired regulated fluid flow, generating sufficient incubation time (delays) at the designated detection zones, and consequently enhancing the obtained signal intensity. The presented approaches allow to overcome the existing limitations of μPADs in immunosensing and will broaden their applicability to a wider range of assays. Although, the application of the developed hCG μPAD assay is mainly in qualitative (i.e., positive or negative) detection of pregnancy, the semi-quantitative measurement of hCG was also investigated, indicating the viability of this assay for sensitive detection of the target hCG analyte within the related physiological range (i.e., 10–500 ng/mL) with a LOD value down to 10 ng/mL.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6374/11/12/474microfluidic paper-based analytical devicespoint-of-care testinghuman chorionic gonadotrophincolorimetric detectionimmunosensingpregnancy test |
| spellingShingle | Mohammad Rahbar Siyi Zou Mahroo Baharfar Guozhen Liu A Customized Microfluidic Paper-Based Platform for Colorimetric Immunosensing: Demonstrated via hCG Assay for Pregnancy Test Biosensors microfluidic paper-based analytical devices point-of-care testing human chorionic gonadotrophin colorimetric detection immunosensing pregnancy test |
| title | A Customized Microfluidic Paper-Based Platform for Colorimetric Immunosensing: Demonstrated via hCG Assay for Pregnancy Test |
| title_full | A Customized Microfluidic Paper-Based Platform for Colorimetric Immunosensing: Demonstrated via hCG Assay for Pregnancy Test |
| title_fullStr | A Customized Microfluidic Paper-Based Platform for Colorimetric Immunosensing: Demonstrated via hCG Assay for Pregnancy Test |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Customized Microfluidic Paper-Based Platform for Colorimetric Immunosensing: Demonstrated via hCG Assay for Pregnancy Test |
| title_short | A Customized Microfluidic Paper-Based Platform for Colorimetric Immunosensing: Demonstrated via hCG Assay for Pregnancy Test |
| title_sort | customized microfluidic paper based platform for colorimetric immunosensing demonstrated via hcg assay for pregnancy test |
| topic | microfluidic paper-based analytical devices point-of-care testing human chorionic gonadotrophin colorimetric detection immunosensing pregnancy test |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6374/11/12/474 |
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