Recent research trends in fluorescent reporters-based lateral flow immunoassay for protein biomarkers specific to acute myocardial infarction

A rapid and sensitive method is urgently required for the detection of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), a major cause of death globally. As a user-friendly diagnostic platform, the lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) has been considered as a rapid and low-cost tool for point-of-care testing. Among the available LFIAs, fluorescent nanoparticles have been widely used as reporters to improve the sensitivity of detection targets. This review describes the basic principle of fluorescence-based LFIA and various fluorescent nanoparticles used as a signal readout. Recently, various studies on fluorescent reporters-based LFIAs for diagnosing potential AMI have been outlined by determining the level of AMI-specific protein biomarkers, including cardiac troponins I and T, heart-type fatty acid-binding protein, myoglobin, brain natriuretic peptide, suppression of tumorigenicity 2, creatine kinase-MB, and C-reactive protein. The challenges of the used fluorescent reporters in LFIA are discussed to achieve affordable and excellent performances for clinical applications.