Enhancing Lateral Flow Device Design for Multiplexed Plasmonic Biosensing of Inflammatory Biomarkers

This study investigates the enhancement of plasmonic nanoparticle-based multiplexed inflammatory biomarker detection sensitivity using a novel 3 × 3 microarray-based lateral flow device (µALFD) design, compared to a traditional single test line format. The biomarkers C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), and serum amyloid A (SAA) are critical indicators of inflammation and infection. Our µALFD design demonstrated superior performance, achieving limits of detection of 3.25 µg/mL, 0.24 ng/mL, and 1.79 µg/mL for CRP, PCT, and SAA, respectively, representing a significant improvement over the conventional test line design. By incorporating three replicates for each biomarker per µALFD strip, the microarray design improved assay reliability while reducing the risk of nonspecific binding through an individual assay flow path for each test spot. These advancements highlight the potential of µALFD technology for developing more sensitive and reliable point-of-care diagnostic devices that can provide faster and more accurate clinical decision-making, particularly in resource-limited settings. The future work will explore integrating artificial intelligence readers for automated quantitative analysis to further enhance diagnostic accuracy and usability.