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. 2022 May 10;15(8):7313–7319. doi: 10.1007/s12274-022-4351-1

Sensitively detecting antigen of SARS-CoV-2 by NIR-II fluorescent nanoparticles

Ruibin Hu 1,#, Tao Liao 2,#, Yan Ren 3,#, Wenming Liu 2, Rui Ma 1, Xinyuan Wang 1, Qihui Lin 3,✉, Guoxin Wang 2,✉, Yongye Liang 1,✉
PMCID: PMC9088145  PMID: 35571588

Abstract

Early detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is an efficient way to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Detecting SARS-CoV-2 antigen can be rapid and convenient, but it is still challenging to develop highly sensitive methods for effective diagnosis. Herein, a lateral flow assay (LFA) based on fluorescent nanoparticles emitting in the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window is developed for sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 antigen. Benefiting from the NIR-II fluorescence with high penetration and low autofluorescence, such NIR-II based LFA allows enhanced signal-to-background ratio, and the limit of detection is down to 0.01 ng·mL−1 of SARS-CoV-2 antigen. In the clinical swab sample tests, the NIR-II LFA outperforms the colloidal gold LFA with higher overall percent agreement with the polymerase chain reaction test. The clinical samples with low antigen concentrations (∼ 0.015−∼ 0.068 ng·mL−1) can be successfully detected by the NIR-II LFA, but fail for the colloidal gold LFA. The NIR-II LFA can provide a promising platform for highly sensitive, rapid, and cost-effective method for early diagnosis and mass screening of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

graphic file with name 12274_2022_4351_Fig1_HTML.jpg

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material (the operation procedure and cost of the materials needed of NIR-II lateral flow assays, the dynamic light scattering spectrum of the NIR-II nanoparticles, the components and testing principle, optimization of main parameters pertaining to the LFA performance, the colloidal gold LFA strip, the fluorescence intensity distribution curves and the T/C values of the strips for clinical samples by NIR-II LFA, and results of clinical swab samples detected by colloidal gold LFA) is available in the online version of this article at 10.1007/s12274-022-4351-1.

Keywords: coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), antigen detection, the second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorophores, lateral flow assay

Electronic Supplementary Material

12274_2022_4351_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (548KB, pdf)

Sensitively detecting antigen of SARS-CoV-2 by NIR-II fluorescent nanoparticles

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology-key research and development project (No. 2020B1111160003), Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission technology breakthrough project (No. JSGG20191231141403880), Shenzhen San-Ming Project (No. SZSM201809085), and Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission general project (No. JCYJ20180504165657443). Also, we are grateful to the Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention for providing and detecting the clinical samples.

Footnotes

Ruibin Hu, Tao Liao, and Yan Ren contributed equally to this work.

Contributor Information

Qihui Lin, Email: lhjkzx@szlhq.gov.cn.

Guoxin Wang, Email: wanggx@wwhsbio.com.

Yongye Liang, Email: liangyy@sustech.edu.cn.

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Supplementary Materials

12274_2022_4351_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (548KB, pdf)

Sensitively detecting antigen of SARS-CoV-2 by NIR-II fluorescent nanoparticles

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