Europium nanoparticle-based lateral flow assay for rapid detection of herpes simplex virus 2-specific antibodies in serum: a preliminary evaluation.

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) is a widely prevalent human pathogen responsible for the majority of genital herpes infections. Type-specific serological screening is a valuable approach for identifying asymptomatic individuals who may unknowingly transmit HSV to sexual partners and neonates, and can inform prevention, treatment, and vaccination strategies aimed at reducing transmission. Here, we describe the development and preliminary evaluation of a Europium nanoparticle-based lateral flow assay (EuNP-LFA) for rapid detection of HSV-2-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies in human serum within 10 minutes. Preliminary performance evaluation using a commercially available anti-herpes mixed-titer performance panel demonstrated 90% sensitivity and 90.9% specificity relative to the FDA-cleared HerpeSelect™ HSV-2 ELISA reference classification. Receiver operating characteristic analysis yielded an area under the curve of 0.918 (95% CI: 0.688-0.983), indicating good discriminatory performance in this preliminary dataset. These findings support the feasibility of the EuNP-LFA as a proof-of-concept platform for rapid HSV-2 serological testing and support further evaluation in larger, clinically representative specimen populations to establish its diagnostic performance and potential utility for point-of-care applications.