Lateral flow immunoassay using plasmonic scattering

The lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) is one of the most successful sensing platforms for real-world point-of-care (POC) testing. However, achieving PCR-level sensitivity without compromising the inherent advantages of LFIA, such as rapid and robust operation, affordability, and naked-eye detection, has remained a primary challenge. In this study, a plasmonic scattering-utilising LFIA was proposed, created by transparentising a nitrocellulose membrane and placing a light-absorbing backing card under the membrane. This LFIA minimised the background signal from its matrix, leading to substantially enhanced sensitivity and enabling naked-eye detection of the plasmonic scattering signal from gold nanoparticles without optics. Our plasmonic scattering-utilising LFIA showed an approximately 2600–4400 times higher detection limit compared with that of commercial LFIAs in influenza A assays. In addition, it exhibited 90% sensitivity in clinical validation, approaching PCR-level sensitivity, while commercial LFIAs showed 23–30% sensitivity. The plasmonic scattering-utilising LFIA plays a ground-breaking role in POC diagnostics and significantly boosts follow-up research.