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A lateral flow assay for copper(II) utilizing catalytic and stem-loop based signal amplification

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Abstract

A DNAzyme-based catalytic and stem-loop based amplification scheme is used in a Cu(II)-specific lateral flow assay (LFA). Three test lines with given cut-off value on the test strip are set as the signal indicating zone for semiquantitative analysis by the number of red color bands that appear after lateral flow. The colored bands are generated by accumulation of gold nanoparticles. Four detection ranges can be visualied: (a) 0–2 ng·mL−1 (= negative); 2–50 ng·mL−1; 50–200 ng·mL−1 and > 200 ng·mL−1 of Cu(II) (= positive). The visual detection limit is thus considered as being 2 ng·mL−1 which is much lower than the U.S. EPA limit in drinking water (1.25 μg·mL−1). The highly specific DNAzyme, the strong multiple-turnover catalytic target recycling property and highly efficient amplification strategy warrant the high specificity, sensitivity and rapidity of this LFA. Conceivbly, this detecton scheme can be extended to other metal ions by proper choice of the ion-specific DNAzyme.

Schematic presentation of a semiquantitative lateral flow test strip for Cu2+ analysis by three visual cut-off value test lines using catalytic and stem-loop based signal amplification strategy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the earmarked fund for China Agriculture Research System (CARS-28-16), the Ministry of Science and Technology of People’s Republic of China (2016YFD0200803-3), the Department of Finance of Jiangsu Province [CX(17)1003] and the Department of Science and Technology of Jiangsu Province (BE2014722).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Lab of Food Quality and Safety of Jiangsu Province-State Key Laboratory Breeding Base, Key Laboratory of Control Technology and Standard for Agro-product Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 210014, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Yulong Wang & Cunzheng Zhang

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety-State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Ministry of Science and Technology, Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, China

    Yulong Wang & Fengquan Liu

  3. College of Plant Protection (Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crop Diseases and Pests), Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Limin Wang

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  1. Yulong Wang
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  2. Limin Wang
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  3. Cunzheng Zhang
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  4. Fengquan Liu
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Correspondence to Cunzheng Zhang or Fengquan Liu.

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Wang, Y., Wang, L., Zhang, C. et al. A lateral flow assay for copper(II) utilizing catalytic and stem-loop based signal amplification. Microchim Acta 186, 82 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-018-3197-4

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