Alginate hydrogel-embedded capillary sensor for quantitative immunoassay with naked eye

Abstract

We have developed an alginate hydrogel-embedded capillary sensor (AHCS) for naked eye-based quantification of immunoassay. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) can modulate gel-sol transformation to increase the permeability of Cu2+-cross-linked alginate hydrogel film in the AHCS, followed by solution exchange into the capillary. Through measuring the length of the liquid phase of the microfluidics in the capillary at a given time, the concentration of the ALP could be quantified with the naked eye. Since ALP is widely applied as a signal reporter for immunoassays, the AHCS could easily accommodate conventional immune sensing platforms. We justify the practicality of AHCS with hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) in serum samples and got comparable results with commercialized immunoassay. This AHCS is easy to make and use, effective in cost, and robust in quantification with the naked eye, showing great promise for next generation point-of-care testing.