Serological assays detect the presence of specific antibodies
in
blood. There are urgent and important applications for serological
point-of-care (POC) assays. However, available detection methods are
either insufficiently sensitive or too complex for POC settings. Here,
we demonstrate that lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), which is arguably
the simplest universal molecular detection approach, can serve as
a methodological platform for highly sensitive serological POC assays
if combined with a simple, fast, and inexpensive electrophoretic step.
In this work, we compared such electrophoretically driven LFIA (eLFIA)
with conventional LFIA for the detection of immunoglobulins G against
hepatitis B and C in serum. The limit of detection of eLFIA was proven
to be 1000 times lower than that of conventional LFIA and sufficiently
low to support clinical serological tests. eLFIA takes less than 10
min, requires only a minor accessory powered by a small 9 V battery,
and can be performed by an untrained person in the POC environment
using a 3 μL specimen of finger-prick capillary blood.