Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576, Singapore.
NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117456, Singapore.
Sci Rep. 2017 Dec 13;7(1):17510. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-17616-3.
There has been growing interest in the development of paper-based biosensors because their simplicity and low cost are attractive for point-of-care diagnosis, especially in low-resource areas. However, only a limited range of paper materials - primarily chromatography papers - have been incorporated into diagnostics thus far. Here, we investigate the performance of different types of paper in order to develop an aptamer- and MoS nanosheet-based sensor relying on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to signal the presence of a target protein. An aptamer which binds to a malarial biomarker, Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH), is chosen for this study, as point-of-care diagnostics would be especially advantageous in low-resource areas, such as those where malaria is prevalent. We observe that of all papers tested, a measurable and specific fluorescence recovery can only be produced on the sensor created with printer paper, while no significant fluorescence recovery is generated on sensors made from other types of paper, including chromatography, lens, and filter papers. Therefore, our findings demonstrate the importance of careful material selection for the development of a paper-based diagnostic test, and suggest that commercially-available products such as printer paper may serve as viable materials to develop cost-effective and simple diagnostics.
人们对基于纸张的生物传感器的发展越来越感兴趣，因为其简单和低成本对于即时诊断特别有吸引力，尤其是在资源匮乏的地区。然而，到目前为止，只有有限的几种纸材料——主要是色谱纸——被应用于诊断。在这里，我们研究了不同类型纸张的性能，以便开发一种基于适体和 MoS 纳米片的传感器，该传感器依靠荧光共振能量转移（FRET）来信号指示目标蛋白质的存在。本研究选择了与疟疾生物标志物乳酸脱氢酶（pLDH）结合的适体，因为即时诊断在资源匮乏的地区特别有利，例如疟疾流行的地区。我们观察到，在所测试的所有纸张中，只有在打印机纸上制作的传感器上才能产生可测量和特定的荧光恢复，而在其他类型的纸张（包括色谱纸、镜头纸和滤纸）上制作的传感器上则没有产生显著的荧光恢复。因此，我们的研究结果表明，对于开发基于纸张的诊断测试，仔细选择材料非常重要，并表明商用产品，如打印机纸，可能是开发经济实惠且简单诊断的可行材料。
