Nevertheless, most of them increase cost of test systems, their complexity, and, thus, reduce availability of these amazing technologies, a property that has made them popular and attractive for the recent six decades. Footnotes Funding of the study: The study was supported by the Far East Integrated Program of Basic Research, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, project no. important, and as well as for self-testing of patients. These tools have exceeded the test of time, and now LFIA test systems are fully consistent with the world’s modern concept of point-of-care testing, finding a wide range of applications not only in human medicine, but also in ecology, veterinary medicine, and agriculture. The extensive opportunities provided by LFIA contribute to the continuous development and improvement of this technology and to the creation of new-generation formats. This review will spotlight the modern principles of design of the most widely used formats of test-systems for clinical laboratory diagnostics, summarize the main advantages and disadvantages of the method, as well as the current achievements and prospects of the LFIA technology. The Angiotensin II human Acetate latest innovations are aimed at improving the analytical performance of LFIA platforms for the diagnosis of bacterial Angiotensin II human Acetate and viral infections, including COVID-19. diagnostic tools, with an annual cumulative growth in global production of 7.7% [1],[2],[4],[5]. The growing popularity of these test systems for medical care or diagnostics in developing countries, medical institutions, emergency situations, as well as for individual use by patients monitoring their health at home are the major factors that contribute to the continuous development and improvement of this method and to the invention of new-generation formats [2],[6]C[8]. 2.?Lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) The principle of diagnostics based on lateral flow immunoassay (paper chromatography) was first proposed in 1959 by the biophysicist Rosalyn S. Yalow and the physician/endocrinologist Solomon A. Berson (Physique 1). Open in a separate window Physique 1. The authors of the theory of the method and the first constructed immunochromatographic rapid test for determination of insulin in human blood plasma (1959) R. Yalou and S. Berson. The first designed system using paraffin paper was a rapid test to determine insulin in human blood plasma [9]. The new theory, soon named LFIA, became a breakthrough technology Angiotensin II human Acetate not only in diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. The formats of new assessments progressed rapidly, the paper was replaced by nitrocellulose, and soon the range Angiotensin II human Acetate of clinical laboratory diagnostics was extended by numerous test systems for determining other minor blood analytes (hormones, enzymes, vitamins, and markers of infectious process). As the technology developed, the range of its applications expanded to diagnostics of infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases [10],[11], cancer biomarkers [12], food pathogens [13], and veterinary diagnostics [14]. Over the following 60 years, several variants of LFIA design were proposed that simplified the method and simultaneously made the test systems more sensitive and selective, affordable, and easy to handle. This allowed their use not only by laboratory staff, but also by other medical specialists and individually by patients for self-monitoring of their health [7],[15]C[17]. The invention of LFIA platforms was mediated by the development of patient-oriented technologies, the shift in the paradigm of patient care culture, and the increasing need for rapidly obtained laboratory information to make urgent decisions in emergency medicine, as well as by the recently introduced global concept of point-of-care testing (testing at the site of care) [18]C[20]. To date, the classical microbiological and immunoserological methods, as well as modern diagnostic platforms such as enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and chemiluminescence assay, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), flow cytometry, and mass spectrometry (MALDI), have been used to accurately identify molecular markers. However, these diagnostic tools requiring expensive gear, long testing time, and qualified personnel are not usually available for small local hospitals, especially in conditions of limited budget and decentralized infrastructure of medical units [3],[11],[20],[21]. 3.?LFIA-platforms: types and formats The potential of these recently introduced efficient technologies consists in the continuous development and improvement of the existing numerous LFIA-platforms, as well as in the creation of multiplex formats and complication of diagnostic goals (such as, e.g., cancer screening). Moreover, the absence of need for special temperature storage conditions contributes to the expansion of the range of their use in developing countries and in sparsely populated and remote regions Rabbit Polyclonal to ACSA [15],[16],[21],[22]. Over the decades of application, these test systems have passed the test of time and confirmed their wide availability, high speed of detection, ease of operation and readout of results, and efficient and reliable diagnosis of diseases [21],[23]C[25]. The cost efficiency and easy-to-handle property of these portable.