Two-dimensional paper chromatography-based fluorescent immunosensor for detecting acute myocardial infarction markers

• We investigated a novel washing scheme following immuno-reactions with analyte.
• The background problem was settled in the lateral flow assay with human serum.
• The new fluorescent immunosensor accurately measured the triple markers for AMI.
• The performance testing indicated that the sensor can be used for clinical testing.

A novel washing scheme following antigen–antibody reactions with analyte was used during construction of a fluorescent immunosensor to resolve the background problem in the lateral flow assay with human serum. An immuno-membrane strip was devised to simultaneously measure cardiac troponin I (cTnI), creatinine kinase-MB isoform (CK-MB), and myoglobin to diagnose acute myocardial infarction. This strip was then installed within a cartridge containing a built-in washing solution tank, which was used to supply the solution across the signal generation pad of the strip after the immune reactions. Such cross-flow washing was initiated by onset-signaling from the internal control and began to run automatically upon sample addition. Under optimal conditions, the immunosensor displayed a stably suppressed background baseline, enabling us to attain a low detection limit for cTnI (0.05 ng/mL) as well as favorable reproducibility for repetitive measurements (relative standard deviation <10%). No interference was observed among the different complex formations at the respective analyte sites, and no artifacts were caused by sample matrices. We tested the performance relationship with the Pathfast reference system for positive serum samples (36 for cTnI, 58 for CK-MB, and 17 for myoglobin), and the correlation coefficients were >0.98. This result suggests that the new immunosensor system based on two-dimensional chromatography can be used for clinical testing