Novel lateral flow assay to detect H2O2 by utilizing self-biotinylation of G-quadruplex

Abstract

We herein describe a novel lateral flow assay (LFA) to detect H₂O₂ by utilizing self-biotinylation of G-quadruplex (G4). In this strategy, the G4 strand promotes the self-biotinylation of G4 itself in the presence of H₂O₂, which is then allowed to bind to the FAM-labeled complementary detector probe. The resulting biotin-labeled G4/FAM-detector probe complex is captured on the test line, producing a red-colored band during lateral flow readout. Based on this unique approach, we achieved the naked-eye detection of target H₂O₂ at concentrations as low as 1 μM, with reliable quantification down to 0.388 μM. This method also demonstrated exceptional specificity in distinguishing H₂O₂ from other non-target molecules. We further verified its versatile applicability by reliably identifying another biomolecule, choline, by coupling with choline oxidase, which generates H₂O₂ during oxidation. This novel LFA strategy holds great promise as a powerful point-of-care testing (POCT) platform for detecting a large spectrum of target biomolecules by employing their corresponding oxidases.