Numerical and experimental study on the detection limit and detection range on the performance of lateral flow assays

Lateral flow assays (LFAs) have drawn considerable research interest in point-of-care testing because of their rapidity, convenience and cost-effectiveness. However, they have been confined by the poor sensitivity and the difficulty to achieve quantitative or semi-quantitative detection. To address this, we use Hook effect tendency to give a synthetic evaluation on the effects of influence factors (e.g., capture probe concentration and report particle concentration) on the detection limit and detection range of LFAs by numerical and experimental methods. We observe that both higher capture probe concentration and report particle concentration will produce lower detection limit of LFAs and wider linear detection range as shown in both experimental data and simulation result. The current investigation provides a physically and synthetically intuitive illustration of fundamental of LFAs and could help to optimize the design of more sensitive LFAs and realize semi-quantitative detection.