title: Advances in paper-based point-of-care diagnostics.
abstract: Advanced diagnostic technologies, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), have been widely used in well-equipped laboratories. However, they are not affordable or accessible in resource-limited settings due to the lack of basic infrastructure and/or trained operators. Paper-based diagnostic technologies are affordable, user-friendly, rapid, robust, and scalable for manufacturing, thus holding great potential to deliver point-of-care (POC) diagnostics to resource-limited settings. In this review, we present the working principles and reaction mechanism of paper-based diagnostics, including dipstick assays, lateral flow assays (LFAs), and microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs), as well as the selection of substrates and fabrication methods. Further, we report the advances in improving detection sensitivity, quantification readout, procedure simplification and multi-functionalization of paper-based diagnostics, and discuss the disadvantages of paper-based diagnostics. We envision that miniaturized and integrated paper-based diagnostic devices with the sample-in-answer-out capability will meet the diverse requirements for diagnosis and treatment monitoring at the POC.
authors: The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China; Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China.
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Hu
authors: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston 02139, MA, USA.
authors: ShuQi
authors: S
authors: Wang
authors: The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China; Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China.
authors: Lin
authors: L
authors: Wang
authors: Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China; Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China.
authors: Fei
authors: F
authors: Li
authors: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
authors: Belinda
authors: B
authors: Pingguan-Murphy
authors: Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China. Electronic address: tjlu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
authors: Tian Jian
authors: TJ
authors: Lu
authors: The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China; Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China. Electronic address: fengxu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
authors: Feng
authors: F
authors: Xu
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010209:Paper; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems
keywords: Microfluidics; Paper-based diagnostics; Point-of-care (POC)