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.