Mitigating the Hook Effect in Lateral Flow Sandwich Immunoassays Using Real-Time Reaction Kinetics

The quantification of analyte, concentrations Using lateral flow assays is a low-cost and user-friendly alternative to traditional lab-based assays. However, sandwich-type immuno-assays are often limited by the high-dose hook effect, which causes falsely low results when analytes are present at very high concentrations. In this paper, We present a reaction kinetics,based technique that solves this problem, significantly increasing the dynamic range of these devices. With the use of a traditional sandwich lateral flow immunoassay, a portable imaging device, and a Mobile interface, we demonstrate the technique by quantifying C-reactive protein concentrations in human serum, over a large portion of the physiological range. The technique could be applied to any hook effect-limited sandwich lateral flow assay and has a high level of accuracy,even in the hook effect range.