Palmtop waveguide-mode sensor: Comparison of sensitivity and subtyping of influenza viruses with SPR, ELISA and Immunochromatography

We developed a highly sensitive waveguide-mode sensor of size 5 cm×10 cm×15 cm (Fig.1). The first topic discussed in this paper is that the discrimination of the H3N2 and H5N1 strains of influenza viruses has been clearly achieved with the waveguide-mode sensor. We found that glycan-based detection using the waveguide sensor system analysis is very useful to distinguish between H3N2 and H5N1 viruses. The second topic concerns sensitivity comparison among the waveguide-mode sensor, immuno-chromatography, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The highest sensitivity for H1N1 and H3N2 viruses was found in ELISA and the waveguide-mode sensor.