Au@Pd Nanopopcorn and Aptamer Nanoflower Assisted Lateral Flow Strip for Thermal Detection of Exosomes

Conventional lateral flow biosensing technologies face the dual formidable challenges of poor sensitivity and cumbersome quantitative devices. Here, we developed a Au@Pd nanopopcorn and aptamer nanoflower assisted lateral flow strip (ANAN-LFS) with a thermal signal output to improve detection sensitivity. Moreover, a smartphone-based thermal reader was designed and meticulously optimized to hand-held style, realizing the essential portability of this quantitative device. Experimental studies revealed that the synthesized Au@Pd nanopopcorns clearly red-shifted into the near-infrared region, thus resulting in a higher photothermal response than the standard gold nanoparticles. Aptamer nanoflowers enhanced the system’s biorecognition ability significantly compared with single-stranded aptamers due to their functional spatial structure, thus resulting in an even greater improvement in the sensitivity of the ANAN-LFS. With exosomes as model targets, the limit of detection (LOD) was calculated to be 1.4 × 104 exosomes/μL, which exhibited a 71-fold improved analytical performance. The feasibility of this system for detecting spiked biological samples at clinical concentrations was also confirmed. These results suggest that the proposed strategy of integrating a ANAN-LFS with a smartphone-based thermal reader has great potential as a powerful tool for bioanalytical applications, offering the combined unique advantages of high sensitivity and expedient portability.