Detecting Low-Abundance Biomarkers via Enzyme-Free Amplification Biosensing on Lateral Flow Strips

The diagnosis of heart attacks in emergency settings needs to be fast and informative for clinical decisions at the point-of-care. However current technologies often require significant infrastructure, particularly for storage when they involve enzymes. This paper proposes an isothermal and non-enzymatic amplification reaction circuit to assay levels of brain-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), a biomarker of heart failure. In the presence of BNP, a matched aptamer pair binds simultaneously to the target, releasing complementary DNAs (cDNAs) which then trigger a cyclic amplification reaction. The secondary DNA structures created can be detected on a lateral flow format, providing convenient results close to the patient.