Flow-Injection immunoassays with acridinium ester-based chemiluminescence detection

A type of flow-injection immunoassay has been developed that makes use of acridinium ester-labelled antibodies for detection. The entire assay, including detection, takes place in a transparent 20-μl immunoreactor containing antibodies covalently immobilized to a rigid beaded support, Pierce Trisacryl GF-2000. An assay for mouse IgG in which the immunoreactor is prepared by the immobilization of anti-mouse IgG is presented as an example. A two-site immunoassay is accomplished by the consecutive injection of the sample, acridinium ester-labelled antibodies and alkaline hydrogen peroxide to initiate chemiluminescence. The light emission is collected directly from the transparent immunoreactor, which is then regenerated in preparation for the next sample injection. The detection sensitivity and time required per sample are dependent on the assay flow-rate and for times of 10, 12 and 18 min per sample the limits of detection are 500, 200 and 50 amol of mouse IgG, respectively. The precision of replicate measurements has a relative standard deviation of 3–4%, and the same 20- μl immunoreactor can be used for at least 1 week with an inter-assay relative standard deviation of 5.9%.     

Development of solid-phase chemiluminescence immunoassays for digoxin comparing flow injection and sequential injection techniques.

The development of a competitive solid-phase immunoassay for digoxin making use of the acridinium chemiluminescence system is described. Two different instrumental approaches are compared. One is based on a continuous flow system using a peristaltic flow injection analysis pump; the other uses a new sequential injection technique. In both systems a flow cell, consisting of transparent PTFE tubing packed with immobilized antibodies, acts as an immunoreactor. The entire assay, including both the immunoreaction and the chemiluminescence reaction, takes place in this immunoreactor cell. Compared with the flow injection technique, the sequential injection mode showed higher precision, ranging from 2.16 to 5.5% RSD depending on concentration. The total assay time, including regeneration, is less than 8 min with the sequential injection technique. The detection limit for both techniques is in the low femtomole range.     

Automated stand-alone flow injection immunoanalysis system for the determination of cephalexin in milk

A fully automated stand-alone flow injection immunoanalysis (FIIA) device for the determination of cephalexin in milk is developed with a main focus on the investigation of the influence of the sample matrix. The system is based on principles of flow-through immunoassays and on sequential addition of the assay components to an immunoreactor. Protein G is immobilised on the surface of the immunoreactor serving as affinity matrix for the polyclonal anti-cephalexin antibodies. A cephalexin-alkaline phosphatase conjugate is mixed with the analyte-containing sample and binds in a competitve manner to the corresponding antibodies in the immunoreactor. After substrate addition enzymatically generated p-aminophenol is detected at a carbon electrode at +150 mV vs. Ag/AgCl. One assay cycle takes 16 min including regeneration of the immunoreactor. The large excess of protein G allows for more than 150 regenerations without significant loss of signal height. Due to the high specificity of the anti-cephalexin antibodies, other beta-lactam antibiotics like penicillin, amoxicillin and cloxacillin do not interfere in the measurements, even when added at 10 mg l-1. To deactivate alkaline phosphatase present in milk, samples are heat-treated for 3 min prior to measurements. Cephalexin recoveries from two milk samples are 90 and 110%. The detection limit in milk is 1 microgram l-1 (mean relative standard deviation of 3%), less than the maximum residue level of 4 micrograms per kg milk fixed for some beta-lactam antibiotics in the European Union. The device is suitable for fast quantitative data generation from consecutively measured samples and thus adds to analytical screening methods.     

Enantioselective sequential-injection chemiluminescence immunoassays for 3,3′,5-triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4)

This study deals with the development of enantioselective flow-through immunosensors for triiodothyronine (T₃) and tetraiodothyronine (thyroxine, T₄) on the basis of a competitive assay using enantioselective antibodies. The instrumental set-up is based on a simple sequential-injection system equipped with a chemiluminescence detector and an immunoreactor, which consists of a flow-cell packed with immobilized haptens. As haptens, 4-amino-l-phenylalanine (4-amino-l-Phe), 4-amino-d-Phe or l-T₃ were used. Antibodies directed against 4-amino-l- or d-Phe or l-T₃ were labeled with an acridinium ester. Three different approaches for immobilizing the haptens were investigated including simple adsorption on polystyrene, chemical binding to an activated methacrylate polymer and binding via the biotin-streptavidin binding (BSB) system. The latter approach showed the best results regarding repeatability and sensivity. Using biotinylated l-T₃ immobilized onto a streptavidin-derivatized trisacryl support and labeled anti-l-T₃ antibodies, a detection limit of 15.5 fmol/ml for l-T₃ was obtained. One assay cycle including regeneration takes only about 5 min. This approach was applied to detect l-T₃ in plasma samples without any sample pre-treatment. The average recovery from spiked plasma sample was about 93% with a R.S.D. below 5%.     

Determination of salbutamol using on-line solid-phase extraction and sequential injection analysis. Comparison of chemiluminescence and fluorescence detection

Determination of salbutamol using sequential injection analysis (SIA) with chemiluminescence and fluorescence detection has been devised. The chemiluminescence signal was emitted during the oxidation of salbutamol by potassium permanganate in sulfuric acid medium. Sodium polyphosphate was used as chemiluminescence enhancer. The fluorescence signal (excitation wavelength 230 nm) was also measured in sulfuric acid medium. Both detection techniques were compared with respect to the application of the methods to the determination of salbutamol in biological materials. The sample pre-treatment takes place directly in the SIA system, when salbutamol is adsorbed on the solid-phase (Baker-carboxylic acid) microcolumn integrated into the system. Sulfuric acid serves both as the reagent and the eluent. The lab-made SIA system consisted of a 2.5-mL Cavro syringe pump, ten-port Vici Valco selection valve and Spectra-Physics FS 970 fluorescence detector, which was lab-modified for chemiluminescence detection. The system was controlled by a PC using originally compiled LabVIEW-supported software. Concentrations, volumes of reagents and flow rates were optimised by a simplex method. Salbutamol was determined in the linear range 0.05-10 microg mL(-1) (RSD 1.53%), with the detection limit (3 sigma) 0.03 microg mL(-1) and sample throughput of 42 samples per hour with chemiluminescence detection in standard solutions. The fluorescence detection enabled the determination of salbutamol in standard solutions in the linear range 0.5-100 microg mL(-1) (RSD 2.69%), with the detection limit 0.2 microg mL(-1) and sample throughput of 24 h(-1). The proposed methods were applied to the determination of salbutamol in human serum and urine. However, serum is a very complicated matrix and the SIA-SPE analysis did not provide satisfactory results. It was possible to determine salbutamol in human urine using this technique. Better recovery was achieved with fluorescence detection.     

流动注射化学发光免疫分析研究I. 血清中乙型肝炎表面抗原的测定

我们首次以键合有抗体的多孔玻璃作为固相免疫分析的免疫反应器, 以化学发光作为最终检测手段, 建立了一种新的、高效率的免疫分析技术-流动注射化学发光免疫分析技术。实验表明: 采用该技术可使单次测定时间从ELISA(Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay)法的二十多小时降至二十分钟, 且所有操作均可在微机控制下自动完成。用该方法对人血清中乙型肝炎表面抗原的测定结果与ELISA法所得结果一致, 对同一样品连续九次测定的相对标准偏差为7.2%。因此, 该方法具有自动化程度高、分析速度快、稳定性好的优点。     

Polystyrene microspheres based sandwich immunosensor using CdTe nanoparticles amplification and ultrasensitive flow-injection chemiluminescence detection

In this paper we propose a specific sandwich immunoassay method for human-immunoglobulin G (HIgG). This immunoassay protocol takes advantage of sandwich binding of primary and secondary antibodies for increased specificity. Polystyrene microspheres (PS) serve as immobilizing support, site for sandwich immunoassay and then subsequently used for chemiluminescence (CL) detections. In this sandwich immunoassay, PS microspheres were modified with the primary anti-HIgG (Ab₁) via electrostatic interaction, while CdTe nanoparticles (CdTeNPs) were modified with horseradish peroxidase labeled anti-HIgG (Ab₂) via covalent binding. Antigen HIgG (Ag) was specifically captured by the first and secondary antibody and form sandwich immunoassay format. Combination of the remarkable sensitivity of CL method and the use of CdTe NPs as anti-HIgG–HRP carrier for the enzymatic signal amplification, provide a linear response range of HIgG from 0.01 to 300 ng mL⁻¹ with an extremely low detection limit of 0.3 pg mL⁻¹. This immunoassay system has many desirable merits including sensitivity, accuracy, and little required instrumentation. The assay results were compared with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and showed relatively good reliability. Significantly the new protocol may become quite promising technique for protein immune-detection as well as DNA analysis and other biological analyses.     

Immunoassay by detecting enhanced resonance light scattering signals of immunocomplex using a common spectrofluorometer

A sensitive, highly specific immunoassay method has been developed by measuring the enhanced resonance light scattering (RLS) signals of immunoreactions with simultaneously scanning both the excitation and the emission monochromators of a common spectrofluorometer. For a given content of antibody (Ab), the RLS signals of an immunoreaction follow Gaussian distribution with antigen (Ag) concentration. The central position of the Gaussian curve represents the concentration of given Ab, and the half bandwidth has proved to be a characteristic constant of a given Ab-Ag immunoreaction. With the RLS signals, the limit of detection for human immunoglobulin G (HIgG) in serum samples could reach 10 ng ml⁻¹, and the concentration of HIgG in blood serum samples could be detected with the recovery of 90.2-107.7% and R.S.D. of 0.8-2.7%. The results of determination for three human serum samples are identical to those obtained by immunoturbidimetry.     

Development of a fluoroimmunosensor for theophylline using immobilised antibody

A flowthrough theophylline fluoroimmunosensor with an antibody covalently immobilised on a solid support has been developed. The immobilisation technique proposed in this paper used Protein-A on control pore glass (Protein A-CPG) in an immunoreactor and dimethylsuberimidate as a cross-linking agent. Several supports and cross-linking reagents were tested in order to obtain oriented immobilisation and thus efficiency of the immunological reaction and reusability of the immunosensor. The immunosensor performance characteristics were established. The precision expressed as RSD, was 1.6%; the detection limit was 3 mug l(-1); the immunoreactor lifetime was established in 80 assays and there were no interferences with structurally similar compounds such as aminophylline, dihydroxypropyltheophylline and caffeine in the determination of the analyte. This fluoroimmunosensor was applied to determine theophylline in human serum samples from patients of the Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Madrid. The results obtained show that there are no significant differences between the proposed immunosensor and the high-pressure liquid chromatographic method with UV detection used by the Hospital, thus demonstrating the validity of the method.     

Rapid flow-injection sandwich-type immunoassays of proteins using an immobilized antibody reactor and adenosine deaminase-antibody conjugates

A rapid flow-injection sandwich enzyme immunoassay suitable for the direct determination of proteins in biological samples is described. The proposed system utilizes highly active adenosine deaminase—antibody conjugates in conjunction with a flow-through immunoreactor and an ammonium ion-selective potentiometric detector. After appropriate sample/reagent injection steps, the enzyme activity bound to the reactor is measured by diverting a coninuously flowing stream of substrate (adenosine) through the packed immunocolumn and detecting liberated ammonium ions downstream with a tubular ammonium ion-selective electrode. The bound enzyme activity is directly proportional to the concentration of analyte in the original sample. By using non-equilibrium flow-rates of sample and reagent slugs, a single protein assay takes less than 12 min, including regeneration of the reactor. The proposed method is shown to be selective, reproducible and capable of determining accurately the model protein (human IgC) at sub-μg ml^?1 concentrations.     

A Model On-line Flow Injection Fluorescence Immunoassay Using a Protein a Immunoreactor and Lucifer Yellow

Abstract

A heterogeneous on-line fluorescence immunoassay has been developed for a model analyte (transferrin) using a flow injection analysis system containing a controlled pore glass protein A immunoreactor. Lucifer yellow VS (LYVS) a 4-aminonaphthalimide with a large stokes shift and pH independence was the fluorophore. For each assay the antibody-protein A reaction takes place at near neutral pH, and the complexes are eluted at acid pH. Transferrin levels in human serum has been determined by this method, and good within assay variations have been achieved.     

Sensitive determination of low molecular mass phenols by liquid chromatography with chemiluminescence detection for the determination of phenol and 4-methylphenol in urine

A rapid, reliable method for the routine determination of phenol and 4-methylphenol in urine samples by liquid chromatography with peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence detection was developed. Phenols were first cleaned up by passing the sample through a LiChrolut EN sorbent column and then derivatized straightforwardly with dansyl chloride (15 min at room temperature) thanks to the micellar catalytic effect provided by Triton X-100 micelles. The derivatives were successfully separated in 15 min on a C18 analytical column and determined using an integrated derivatization chemiluminescence detection unit based on the bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate-hydrogen peroxide system. Linear ranges from 3 to 500 microg L(-1), limits of detection at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 from 0.3 to 0.5 microg L(-1) and relative standard deviations from 2.8 to 4.7% were obtained. The proposed method was applied to the assay of different human urine samples (healthy, smoker and petrol station worker volunteers) and free and total phenol and 4-methylphenol were determined. The proposed method surpasses other chromatographic alternatives for the determination of these phenols in terms of limit of detection and sample requirements for the analysis.     

Aptamer‐based detection and quantitative analysis of human immunoglobulin E in capillary electrophoresis with chemiluminescence detection

A novel aptamer‐based CE with chemiluminescence (CL) assay was developed for highly sensitive detection of human immunoglobulin E (IgE). The IgE aptamer was conjugated with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to form AuNPs‐aptamer that could specifically recognize the IgE to produce an AuNPs‐aptamer‐IgE complex. The mixture of the AuNPs‐aptamer‐IgE complex and the unbounded AuNPs‐aptamer could be effectively separated by CE and sensitively detected with luminol‐H₂O₂ CL system. By taking the advantage of the excellent catalytic behavior of AuNPs on luminol‐H₂O₂ CL system, the ultrasensitive detection of IgE was achieved. The detection limit of IgE is 7.6 fM (S/N = 3) with a linear range from 0.025 to 250 pM. Successful detection of IgE in human serum samples was demonstrated and the recoveries of 94.9–103.2% were obtained. The excellent assay features of the developed approach are its specificity, sensitivity, adaptability, and very small sample consumption. Our design provides a methodology model for determination of rare proteins in biological samples.     

蛋白A连续床亲和毛细管色谱柱的制备及性能考察

人免疫球蛋白 G(HIg G)是一种重要的生物大分子 ,是人血浆中的主要成分之一 ,通常采用免疫学的方法测定 .蛋白 A(Protein A)与免疫球蛋白 (HIg G)的 Fc区之间具有很强的特异性亲和作用 ,因而固载蛋白 A的亲和介质可用于免疫球蛋白及单克隆抗体的分离、纯化和分析测定[1～ 3 ] .根据固定相存在形式的不同 ,毛细管色谱柱主要有开管、填充和连续床柱 3种方式 .连续床具有相比高、易制备 (一步合成 )、孔径易控制、不需烧塞子和易改性等优点 .连续床与其它常用的亲和介质 (如球型凝胶颗粒、灌流色谱基质 [4、 5] 、膜介质 [6,7] 等 )相比具…     

基于抗原包被的微孔板式化学发光酶免疫分析法测定人尿中的雌三醇

将雌三醇-6-(O-羧甲基)肟(E3-6-CMO)与牛血清白蛋白(BSA)形成的偶联物E3-6-CMO-BSA物理吸附于聚苯乙烯微孔板孔内作为固相抗原,与雌三醇(E3)标准溶液或者水解尿样中待测E3通过竞争法进行免疫反应.以对碘苯酚增强的辣根过氧化物酶(HRP)催化鲁米诺-过氧化氢化学发光体系作为信号检测系统,建立了一种高通量、简便快速、灵敏稳定的化学发光酶免疫分析方法用于测定人尿中E3的含量.考察和优化了包被液的酸碱性、抗原包被浓度、酶标抗体稀释比例及用量、温育时间、化学发光底物用量及化学发光反应时间的影响.在最优实验条件下,方法的灵敏度为0.20ng/mL,批内和批间变异系数均在15%之内,低、中、高浓度加标水解尿样的平均回收率分别为107.9%、100.9%和91.2%.使用抗原包被法和抗体包被法同时对10份水解尿样进行测定,结果显示相关性良好,相关系数为0.9984,表明本方法可以满足临床检测的要求.     

Flow injection electrochemical enzyme immunoassay for theophylline using a protein A immunoreactor and p-aminophenyl phosphate-p-aminophenol as the detection system.

A competitive electrochemical enzyme immunoassay has been developed for the antiasthmatic drug theophylline, utilizing a controlled-pore glass-protein A immunoreactor and flow injection techniques. p-Aminophenyl phosphate, a substrate for alkaline phosphatase, has been used in this assay, and its hydrolysis product p-aminophenol was determined at +0.2 V versus the saturated calomel electrode. For each sample the antibody-protein A reaction takes place at near-neutral pH, and the complexes are eluted at acid pH. Serum theophylline has been determined by this method, and good relative standard deviations and percentage recoveries have been achieved.     

A Novel Chemiluminescence Immunoassay Using Solid‐Phase Antigen for Free 17β‐Estradiol in Human Serum

A high‐performance chemiluminescence immunoassay, with long‐term durability, good precision and time‐saving, was proposed for the detection of free 17β‐estradiol (E₂) in human serum. Ninety‐six microplates were coated with bovine serum albumin conjugated E₂ antigen as solid phase for the immunoassay. The E₂‐BSA antigen coated on the microplate and the E₂ antigen in the sample competed for the binding sites on the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) labeled anti‐E₂ antibody. Chemiluminescence reaction was subsequently carried out by HRP catalyzing luminol‐H₂O₂ substrates, and the chemiluminescence intensity was inversely proportional to the amount of analyte in human sera samples. The concentration of immunoreagents, immunoreaction time, and other relevant variable conditions upon the immunoassay were studied and optimized. The proposed method exhibited detection limit as low as 5.94×10^?3 µg·L^?1 in a linear detection range from 0.01 to 1.00 µg·L^?1, good recoveries between 105% and 108%, and high precision with intra‐ and inter‐assay coefficients between 7.9% and 14.3%.     

On-line electrophoretic sample clean-up for sensitive and reproducible μCE immunoassay

We report a novel on-line electrophoretic sample clean-up approach for highly sensitive and reproducible microchip electrophoretic (μCE) immunoassay of low-abundance proteins in human serum. The method takes advantage of the differential effect of field-amplified sample stacking on molecules with different electrophoretic mobility. Large interfering proteins are removed from the loading channel by simple voltage control, resulting in selective concentration and injection of smaller target analytes to the separation channel. As a proof of concept, an antibody-free injection mode was developed for direct μCE immunoassay of human insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in serum samples without any additional purification steps. Clear and sharp peaks were obtained for IGF-I with low background and excellent reproducibility. Besides, the assay sensitivity was further increased by addition of ethanol to the sample buffer at a concentration of 50% right before performing the μCE detection. The lower limit of detection of IGF-I achieved 0.68 ng mL(-1), with an overall signal enhancement factor of 2750. The established on-line electrophoretic sample clean-up approach may find wide applications in the development of other microchip-based high-throughput analytical platforms for clinical and biological use.     

Enhanced immunoassay for porcine circovirus type 2 antibody using enzyme-loaded and quantum dots-embedded shell–core silica nanospheres based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

Boosting the detection sensitivity of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is significant to the early clinical diagnosis of various diseases. Here, we developed a versatile immunosensor using silica nanospheres as carriers for sensitive detection of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) antibody. With HRP enzyme covalently immobilized on the silica nanospheres and CdSe nanocrystals embedded inside, these signal probes were successfully utilized in the sensitive detection of PCV2 antibody by ELISA, fluorometry and square-wave voltammetry (SWV). To further demonstrate the performance of the immunosensor, Human IgG (HIgG) was used as a model analyte. Since more HRP and CdSe QDs were loaded, 5-, 200- and 400-fold enhancements in amplified ELISA, fluorometry and voltammetry responses for HIgG could be achieved compared to conventional ELISA. The respective detection limits of theses methods for HIgG were 3.9, 0.1 and 0.05 ng mL⁻¹ with a RSD below 5% for amplified ELISA, fluorescence and SWV measurements. Additionally, a 100-fold improvement was obtained in the detection sensitivity for PCV2 antibody immunoassay. The versatile immunosensor exhibits good sensitivity, stability and reproducibility, suggesting its potential applications in clinical diagnostics.     

Monitoring urea levels during haemodialysis with a pulsed-flow chemiluminescence analyser

We have developed a rapid and robust method for the determination of urea in spent haemodialysis fluid as a measure of the efficiency of haemodialysis treatments. A novel flow analysis instrument (which generates a pulsed solution flow) was coupled with a chemiluminescence detection system, based on the oxidation of urea with hypobromite. The ‘pulsed-flow chemiluminescence analyser’ exhibited high precision (1.6% relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) for a 1×10⁻⁵ M urea standard, n=10) and good limit of detection (9×10⁻⁷ M, S/N=3) as a result of the rapid and reproducible mixing of small volumes of reagent and sample at the point of detection. The proposed chemiluminescence technique and an established urease-based laboratory procedure were compared, and showed a very similar trend for the change in urea concentration during a typical haemodialysis treatment. The relative chemiluminescence response from the oxidation of species with similar structure has revealed the inherent selectivity of the light producing pathway, but a positive interference was obtained from protein when this technique was applied to the determination of urea in serum samples. Arginine was identified as the predominant source of this interference.