Introduction

Immunochromatography assay (ICA), namely lateral flow test, is a simple device

intended to detect the presence or absence of the target analyte.
There are three types of immunochromatography assay.
Competitive immunoassay:
The competitive immunoassay (type II) relies on the competition between the antigen
of interest (the analyte) and a constant amount of a similar but labeled antigen for a
limited amount of specific antibody.
Mechanism:
An immunochromatographic assay (ICA) based on competitive antigen-coated format
use colloidal gold as the label.In most of the competitive ICAs developed so far,
competition is between the migrating analyte and the immobilized analyte hapten
(capture antigen) for the binding to the migrating Ab-CG conjugate.The degree of
inhibition of Ab-CG conjugate binding to the capture antigen would be proportional
to the frequency of the collision between Ab-CG conjugate and analyte before Ab-CG
conjugate binding to the capture antigen. Meanwhile, the collision frequency would
depend on the concentration of the pesticide around the migrating Ab-CG conjugate
and the time required for Ab-CG conjugate to reach the capture antigen.Such format
suits best for low molecular weight compounds which cannot bind two antibodies
simultaneously. Absence of color at test line is an indication for the presence of
analyte while appearance of color both at test and control lines indicates a negative
result.