Improved sensitivity of lateral flow assay using paper-based sample concentration technique

Lateral flow assays (LFAs) hold great promise for point-of-care testing, especially in resource-poor settings. However, the poor sensitivity of LFAs limits their widespread applications. To address this, we developed a novel device by integrating dialysis-based concentration method into LFAs. The device successfully achieved 10-fold signal enhancement in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) nucleic acid detection with a detection limit of 0.1 nM and 4-fold signal enhancement in myoglobin (MYO) detection with a detection limit of 1.56 ngimL in less than 25 min. This simple, low-cost and portable integrated device holds great potential for highly sensitive detection of various target analytes for medical diagnostics, food safety analysis and environmental monitoring. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.