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Bifunctional gold nanoparticles as an agglomeration-enhancing tool for highly sensitive lateral flow tests: a case study with procalcitonin

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Abstract

This article proposes a new scheme for increasing the sensitivity of immunochromatographic assays. The scheme based on (a) recognition of dual-component gold nanoparticles (GNPs) conjugated to specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) and biotin, and (b) two additional mono-component conjugates, GNP–biotin and GNP–streptavidin. Antibodies on the surface of the GNP bind to the model antigen used here (the sepsis marker procalcitonin), and additional conjugates amplify the signal creating nanoparticle nets through biotin–streptavidin interaction. This is a one-step multi-interaction assay that requires no additional reagents or manipulations. The assay takes 15 min, and the detection limit is 3 pg mL−1 which is 30 times lower than the conventional test system with the same antibodies. Testing sera of patients with the lowest procalcitonin levels using this method confirmed the efficiency of the new enhancement scheme. In our perception, the approach is universal and can be used in many immunochromatographic assay.

Schematic of the amplification of label binding in immunochromatrography. It leads to a significant improvement in sensitivity due to the use of self-assembling aggregates of gold nanoparticles conjugates conjugated to specific antibodies and biotin groups, and two additional conjugates having streptavidin and biotin groups.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank S.M. Pridvorova (Institute of Biochemistry, Federal Centre of Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences) for obtaining the electron microscope images.

The work was financially supported by the Grant of the President of the Russian Federation for state support of young Russian scientists – Ph.D No. MK-2075.2017.4 (agreement No.14.W01.17.2075-MK).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. A.N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry, Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prospect 33, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    Nadezhda A. Taranova, Alexandr E. Urusov, Elchin G. Sadykhov, Anatoly V. Zherdev & Boris B. Dzantiev

Authors
  1. Nadezhda A. Taranova
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  2. Alexandr E. Urusov
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  3. Elchin G. Sadykhov
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  4. Anatoly V. Zherdev
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  5. Boris B. Dzantiev
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Boris B. Dzantiev.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Taranova, N.A., Urusov, A.E., Sadykhov, E.G. et al. Bifunctional gold nanoparticles as an agglomeration-enhancing tool for highly sensitive lateral flow tests: a case study with procalcitonin. Microchim Acta 184, 4189–4195 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2355-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2355-4

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