Establishment of a multi-line immunochromatography based on magnetic nanoparticles for simultaneous screening of multiple biomarkers

Biomarkers screening is a benefit approach for early diagnosis of major diseases. In this study, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been utilized as labels to establish a multi-line immunochromatography (MNP-MLIC) for simultaneous detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA 19–9), and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in a single serum sample. Under the optimal parameters, the three biomarkers can be rapidly and simultaneously qualitative screening within 15 min by naked eye. As for quantitative detection, the MNP-MLIC test strips were precisely positioned and captured by a smartphone, and signals on the test and control lines were extracted by ImageJ software. The signal ratio of test and control lines has been calculated and used to plot quantitative standard curves with the logarithmic concentration, of which the correlation coefficients are more than 0.99, and the limit of detection for CEA, CA 19–9, and AFP were 0.60 ng/mL, 1.21 U/mL, and 0.93 ng/mL, respectively. The recoveries of blank serum were 75.0 ~ 112.5% with the relative standard deviation ranging from 2.5 to 15.3%, and the specificity investigation demonstrated that the MNP-MLIC is highly specific to the three biomarkers. In conclusion, the developed MNP-MLIC offers a rapid, simple, accurate, and highly specific method for simultaneously detecting multiple biomarkers in serum samples, which provides an efficient and accurate approach for the early diagnosis of diseases. Graphical Abstract