Gibson Group News
Polymeric-Test Line for Lateral Flow Devices Published
Our latest work into how we can re-engineer lateral flow tests with polymeric components is published! Lateral flow tests (LFDs) are widely used for home pregnancy tests, to monitor the spread of COVID-19. A typical LFD uses antibodies on a gold nanoparticle (which makes the red colour) and forms a 'sandwich' with the analyte and another anti-body immobilised onto the paper-surface of the device. We have recently shown how synthetic polymers can be used on the gold nanoparticle surface to anchor targetting ligands which are not antibodies (e.g. glycans). In this work we explored using polymers to immobilise onto the test line (i.e. onto the paper). The current methods to immobilise non-antibody ligands is to chemically conjugate ligands onto polymeric carriers, which is non-trivial. We show here that poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) can be immobilised onto the paper, due to its ability to be dissolved in water (essential for printing) but being sufficiently hydrophobic to be retained. We install biotin and N-acetyl galactosamine as model capture units, showing that the PVP test line can be used. This is the first step towards making a robust and versatile polymeric capture agent to expand the scope of LFDs beyond antibodies.
Read the paper here:
End-Functionalized Poly(Vinyl Pyrrolidone) for Ligand Display in Lateral Flow Device Test Lines