Carbon nanospheres dual spectral-overlapped fluorescence quenching lateral flow immunoassay for rapid diagnosis of toxoplasmosis in humans

• Published in: Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis Vol. 241; p. 115986
• Main Authors: Li, Xiaozhou, Wang, Qi, Li, Xintong, Wang, Cong, Lu, Jinhui, Zhang, Enhui, Liang, Chaolan, Wang, Wenjing, Fu, Yongshui, Li, Chengyao, Zhang, Ling, Li, Tingting
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier B.V 15.04.2024
• Subjects: Carbon; Carbon nanospheres; Dual spectral-overlapped fluorescence quenching; Humans; Immunoassay; Inner filter effect; Lateral flow immunoassay; Nanospheres; Quantum Dots; Toxoplasma antibody; Toxoplasmosis - diagnosis; Inner filter effect; Toxoplasma antibody; Carbon nanospheres; Lateral flow immunoassay; Dual spectral-overlapped fluorescence quenching
• ISSN: 0731-7085; 1873-264X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpba.2024.115986

Toxoplasmosis is a common zoonotic disease caused by a protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii (Tox), approximately infecting one-third of human populations worldwide. This study developed the carbon nanospheres (CNPs) based dual spectral-overlapped fluorescence quenching lateral flow immunoassay (CNPs-FQLFIA) for detection of Tox antibodies (ToxAbs). The CNPs have been effectively coupled with Tox antigen (ToxAg), which can completely overlap the excitation and emission spectra of europium nanospheres (EuNPs) and CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) in testing strips of CNPs-QDs-FQLFIA or CNPs-EuNPs-FQLFIA. The sensitivity of CNPs-EuNPs-FQLFIA or CNPs-QDs-FQLFIA was 4 or 8 IU/mL under natural light readout, or both 4 IU/mL ToxAbs under ultraviolet (UV) light readout by the naked eyes, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) of two types of CNPs-FQLFIA was both 1 IU/mL ToxAbs under UV light by a dry fluorescence analyzer, but no cross-reaction was found with other antibodies. The intra-assay coefficient variation (CV) of both CNPs-EuNPs-FQLFIA and CNPs-QDs-FQLFIA was less than 8%, while the inter-assay CV was less than 14%, respectively. The correlation coefficient (R2) of CNPs-EuNPs-FQLFIA or CNPs-QDs-FQLFIA to measure the different concentrations of ToxAbs spiked serum samples was 0.99712 and 0.99896, respectively. The CNPs-FQLFIA presented a characteristics of 94.3% sensitivity, 100% specificity and 98% accuracy for detection of ToxAbs in clinical serum samples. In conclusion, CNPs-FQLFIA with EuNPs or QDs fluorescence reporter was an easy, rapid, sensitive, precise and quantitative assay for detecting Tox antibodies in human blood samples. •A novel fluorescence quencher to detect ToxAbs in serum samples was established.•Dual spectral-overlapped fluorescence quenching was established.•CNPs are sea urchin-like morphology with conspicuous spicules.•There were three modes to read the results in this method.