Aggregation-induced luminescence probe based lateral flow immunoassay for the simultaneous quantitative detection of IL-6/PCT

The detection of important inflammatory biomarkers possesses substantial advantages in guiding clinical decision-making. In particular, simultaneous detection of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and procalcitonin (PCT) significantly improves the differentiation between bacterial and viral infections, a critical challenge in early-stage diagnostics. To address this need, a reliable lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) incorporating aggregation-induced luminescent nanoparticles (BTA@PS) was successfully developed. A novel aggregation-induced emission (AIE) probe was designed and encapsulated within polystyrene microspheres, thereby overcoming the limitations of aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) in conventional fluorescent materials. The resulting BTA@PS nanoparticles, conjugated with specific antibodies against IL-6 and PCT, served as stable and effective immunofluorescent probes for the LFIA platform. Under optimized experimental conditions, the developed BTA@PS-LFIA enabled simultaneous quantification of IL-6 and PCT, demonstrating excellent linearity over the range of 2–8000   pg/mL and 0.04–30   ng/mL, respectively, with coefficient of variation (CV) values of below 5%. Furthermore, this method demonstrated superior detection capability for PCT and IL-6 in serum, confirming its high potential for rapid clinical diagnostics.