Paper-Based Ratiometric Fluorescence Analytical Devices towards Point-of-Care Testing of Human Serum Albumin

Monitoring of human serum albumin (HSA) in a point-of-care fashion is urgently needed in particular for elderly or chronically ill patients. Herein, a dual-state emissive chalcone probe having the feature of aggregation-induced emission was designed and synthesized. The concentration of HSA can be evaluated by the ratios of emission from probes in aggregated and monomeric state, which gives a visually discernible red-to-green color change. A simple, portable paper-based analytical device have been fabricated by integration of the recognition probe in the detection pad and employed for HSA test using the whole blood samples. This paper-based assay shows the analytical capability comparable to the standard testing methods but is in a point-of-care fashion, providing a promising tool for at-home HSA detection and HSA-related disease diagnosis.