TY - JOUR A1 - Arai, Marylyn Setsuko A1 - Kim, Hyunho A1 - Pascavis, Madeleine A1 - Cha, Baekdong A1 - Brambilla, Gabriel A1 - Cho, Young Kwan A1 - Park, Jinho A1 - Vilela, Raquel R. C. A1 - de Camargo, Andrea S. S. A1 - Castro, Cesar M. A1 - Lee, Hakho T1 - Upconverting Nanoparticle-based Enhanced Luminescence Lateral-Flow Assay for Urinary Biomarker Monitoring JF - ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces N2 - Development of efficient portable sensors for accurately detecting biomarkers is crucial for early disease diagnosis, yet remains a significant challenge. To address this need, we introduce the enhanced luminescence lateral-flow assay, which leverages highly luminescent upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) alongside a portable reader and a smartphone app. The sensor’s efficiency and versatility were shown for kidney health monitoring as a proof of concept. We engineered Er3+- and Tm3+-doped UCNPs coated with multiple layers, including an undoped inert matrix shell, a mesoporous silica shell, and an outer layer of gold (UCNP@mSiO2@Au). These coatings synergistically enhance emission by over 40-fold and facilitate biomolecule conjugation, rendering UCNP@mSiO2@Au easy to use and suitable for a broad range of bioapplications. Employing these optimized nanoparticles in lateral-flow assays, we successfully detected two acute kidney injury-related biomarkers-kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL)-in urine samples. Using our sensor platform, KIM-1 and NGAL can be accurately detected and quantified within the range of 0.1 to 20 ng/mL, boasting impressively low limits of detection at 0.28 and 0.23 ng/mL, respectively. Validating our approach, we analyzed clinical urine samples, achieving biomarker concentrations that closely correlated with results obtained via ELISA. Importantly, our system enables biomarker quantification in less than 15 min, underscoring the performance of our novel UCNP-based approach and its potential as reliable, rapid, and user-friendly diagnostics. KW - Biosensor KW - Upconverting nanoparticles KW - Lateral flow KW - Portable sensor KW - Kidney injury PY - 2024 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c06117 VL - 16 IS - 29 SP - 38243 EP - 38251 PB - American Chemical Society (ACS) AN - OPUS4-60689 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -