Novel immunochromatographic assay on cotton thread based on carbon nanotubes reporter probe.

In this article, a novel immunochromatographic assay method on cotton thread based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as reporter probe was successfully prepared for visual and rapid detection of a lung cancer related biomarker, human ferritin antigen. A model system comprising ferritin as an analyte was used to demonstrate the protocol of the cotton thread immunoassay device. The device can detect at least 50ng/mL human ferritin antigen, which improved the sensitivity approximately by 500 folds comparing with previous point-of-care test report based on carbon nanotubes as reporter probe. The CNTs reporter probe combined with cotton thread device based biosensor provided an alternative path for clinical diagnosis of other protein or nucleic acid biomarkers.