Vertical Flow Assay for Inflammatory Biomarkers Based on Nanofluidic Channel Array and SERS Nanotags

Abstract There is a great demand for the development of detection assays for inflammation infection diagnosis with high throughput and ultrasensitivity. Herein, a vertical flow assay system with functionalized nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) as sensing membrane, and encoded core–shell surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanotags as labels for multiple inflammatory biomarkers detection is presented. A 2 × 2 test array on the porous AAO is developed and modified with multiple capture antibodies to capture inflammatory biomarkers from samples. Due to the high surface area to volume ratio of the AAO membrane, and its influence on plasmonic coupling, the electromagnetic field of the encoded core–shell SERS nanotags is enhanced. Detection limits of 53.4, 4.72, 48.3, and 7.53 fg mL −1…