The point-of-care testing (POCT) diagnostic study is important for the development of new strategies for therapeutics, personalized medicine, and home care1. Cellulose papers are widely used as platforms in immunoassays, as they are cheap, accessible, and familiar to users2. In addition, the porous structure of cellulose paper possesses the power to drive liquid flow without additional energy impact. Records of paper-based bioanalysis can be found as early as the 20th century, when paper chromatography was first invented in 1952. The most prevalent example is immunochromatographic tests3, such as pregnancy and diabetes test strips. These tests provide relatively fast assay times and inexpensive analysis4. Due to their simplicity, these conventional paper strip tests have been widely used in POCT diagnostics5.
Detection methods including colorimetric6, electrochemical7, and electrochemiluminescence8 methods have been reported to measure targets in biological samples. In addition to these quantitative methods, a reliable method for immobilizing antibodies on cellulose paper is also important for the development of diagnostic devices. Non-specific adsorption is the main strategy for modifying antibodies on the surface of the paper-based devices9, 10 to ensure maximum binding capacity to their targets after immobilization. However, a previous study showed that antibodies that are adsorbed onto cellulose paper can desorb from the fibers11 by 40%. Thus, direct adsorption of antibodies onto cellulose may not provide reproducible results12. Covalent immobilization of antibodies that are grafted on the paper surfaces is an alternative method of developing effective paper-based bioassays13. Various methods have been reported for the modification of cellulose14, 15. Ideally, antibodies should maintain their original functionality after immobilization12. Carbonyldiimidazole combined with 1-cyano-4-dimethylaminopyridinium tetrafluoroborate16; 1-fluoro-2-nitro-4-azidobenzene through a UV-based activation strategy17, 18; a chemoenzymatic strategy based on xyloglucan modification19; a 1,4-phenylenediisothiocyanate linking agent20; heteropolysaccharide oxidation21 click chemistry22; and cationic porphyrins23 have been used to covalently immobilize biomolecules on cellulose paper. Chitosan modified paper has been used to develop paper based immunodevices24-26 since it is abundant and biocompatible27. Chitosan is cationic and adheres strongly to anionic cellulose27. The capture antibodies are immobilized on the paper through chitosan coating and glutaraldehyde cross-linking. Periodate oxidation is another method for grafting the capture antibodies on the cellulose paper28. In this method, sodium periodate is spotted on the paper to convert 1,2-dihydroxyl (glycol) groups in cellulose directly to aldehyde groups. The aldehyde groups are then used to form covalent bonds between polysaccharides and antibodies28. Although the fabrication is simple, it is difficult to completely wash out sodium periodate. The unwashed sodium periodate can cause further oxidation of the antibodies that are immobilized on the cellulose paper, affecting the activity and stability of the antibodies. N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride and N-hydroxysuccinimide cross linkers are also used to covalently immobilize antibodies on electrospun poly-L-lactic acid and cellulose acetate nanofibers for the development of nanofiber-based assays29.
In this study, a silane coupling technique was used to graft amine functional groups on cellulose paper discs. This technique helps to retain the original pore size, wicking, and filtration rate of the cellulose filter papers, allowing maximum vertical flow-through in immunoassays. The silane coupling technique has been widely used in biosensors to functionalize substrate surfaces with secondary amine groups, followed by further modification using biomolecules. The grafting of amine groups on the matrix surface comprises a condensation reaction between -OH groups of the organofunctional silane agents and matrix substrate30. The cellulose paper discs were functionalized with amine groups by silane coupling through 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APS)31. This was followed by covalently immobilizing capture antibodies using two different methods. The first method involved binding of periodate oxidized capture antibodies to the amine functionalized cellulose paper discs. The second method used glutaraldehyde as a cross-linking agent to attach the capture antibodies to the amine group-functionalized cellulose paper discs. The presence of capture antibodies was confirmed by rabbit anti-human IgG-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), using a fluorescence molecular imager. The binding activity of rabbit anti-human IgG-FITC to goat anti-rabbit IgG was also evaluated by peroxidase substrate. The effects of various concentrations of sodium periodate, glutaraldehyde, and capture antibodies were investigated. The application test of the immobilized capture antibody was successfully performed through the detection of IgG serum.