Mass Spectrometry for Paper-Based Immunoassays: Toward On-Demand Diagnosis

Abstract

Current analytical methods, either point-of-care or centralized detection, are not able to meet recent demands of patient-friendly testing and increased reliability of results. Here, we describe a two-point separation on-demand diagnostic strategy based on a paper-based mass spectrometry immunoassay platform that adopts stable and cleavable ionic probes as mass reporter; these probes make possible sensitive, interruptible, storable, and restorable on-demand detection. In addition, a new touch paper spray method was developed for on-chip, sensitive, and cost-effective analyte detection. This concept is successfully demonstrated via (i) the detection of Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein 2 antigen and (ii) multiplexed and simultaneous detection of cancer antigen 125 and carcinoembryonic antigen.