Abstract
As pathogens such as the influenza virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can easily cause pandemics, the development of rapid diagnostic tests is crucial for implementing efficient quarantine measures, providing effective treatments to patients, and preventing or containing a pandemic infection. Here, we developed the immunochromatography-NanoSuit® method, an improved immunochromatography method combined with a conventional scanning electron microscope (SEM), which enables the observation of immunocomplexes labeled with a colloidal metal. The detection ability of our method is comparable to that of real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and the detection time is within approximately 15 min. Our new immunochromatography-NanoSuit® method suppresses cellulose deformity and makes it possible to easily focus and acquire high-resolution images of gold/platinum labeled immunocomplexes of influenza A, without the need for conductive treatment as with a conventional SEM. This easy and highly sensitive quantitative analysis by immunochromatography can be utilized to diagnose various infections in such as human and livestock, and highly infectious diseases including SARS-CoV-2.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding Statement
This work was supported by JST START (grant number 714 [to H.K.]), by JSPS KAKENHI (grant numbers JP17K08784 [to H.K.] and JP18H01869 [to T.H.]), and by AMED (grant number A508 [to H.K.]).
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