An Ultrasensitive Gold Nanoparticle-based Lateral Flow Test for the Detection of Active Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A

Botulism is a severe and potentially lethal paralytic disease caused by several botulinum neurotoxin-producing Clostridia spp. In China, the majority of the cases caused by botulism were from less-developed rural areas. Here, we designed specific substrate peptides and reconfigured gold nanoparticle-based lateral flow test strip (LFTS) to develop an endopeptidase-based lateral flow assay for the diagnosis of botulism. We performed this lateral flow assay on botulinum neurotoxin-spiked human serum samples. The as-prepared LFTS had excellent performance in the detection of botulinum neurotoxin using only 1 μL of simulated serum, and its sensitivity and specificity were comparable to that of mouse lethality assay. Moreover, the assay takes only half a day and does not require highly trained laboratory staff, specialized facility, or equipment. Finally, our LFTS can be potentially extended to other serotypes of BoNTs by designing specific substrate peptides against the different types of BoNTs. Overall, we demonstrate a strategy by which LFTS and endopeptidase activity assays can be integrated to achieve facile and economic diagnosis of botulism in resource-limited settings.