A solid-phase enzyme-linked assay for vitamin B12

A new solid-phase enzyme-linked competitive binding assay for vitamin B₁₂ (cyanocobalamin) is described. The assay is based on the competition between analyte B₁₂ molecules and a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase-vitamin B₁₂ conjugate for a limited number of R-protein binding sites immobilized on sepharose particles. After appropriate incubation and washing steps, the enzyme activity bound to the solid-phase is inversely related to the concentration of B₁₂ in the sample. Under optimized conditions, the method can detect B₁₂ in the range of 3×10^–10–1×10^–8M (using 100l sample) with high selectivity over other biological molecules.