Rapid and Sensitive Detection of Capsid Protein P24 of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (hiv-1) Using On-chip Europium (iii) Nanoparticle-based Immunoassay

A microfluidic immunoassay based on Europium nanoparticles has been developed for rapid and sensitive detection of HIV-1. The core polymer microfluidic device contains immunoreactors anchored with monoclonal capture antibodies highly specific to p24, the capsid protein of HIV-1. To report the capturing events, biotinylated secondary antibody followed by streptavidin-conjugated Europium nanoparticles are sequentially loaded to the microdevice, and the fluorescence signals are detected using time-resolved fluorometry. The microfluidic Europium nanoparticle-based immunoassay allows the detection of 5 pg/mL p24 from 25 μL of samples within 1.5 h. Further integration and optimization will enable the use of the sensitive assay in a point-of-care, resource-limited setting.