Homogeneous electrochemical enzyme immunoassays

Homogeneous electrochemical enzyme immunoassays for both phenytoin and digoxin have been developed. In both cases the label was glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, which catalyzes the reduction of NAD to NADH. The NADH produced was detected by LCEC at a carbon paste electrode. 

A homogeneous electrochemical enzyme immunoassay for 2,4-dinitrophenol-aminocaproic acid (DNP-ACA), has been developed based on antibody inhibition of enzyme conversion from the apo- to the holo- form Apoglucose oxidase was used as the enzyme label. This enzyme is inactive until binding of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) to form the holoenzyme which is active. Hydrogen peroxide is the enzymatic product which is detected electrochemically. Because antibody bound apoenzyme cannot bind FAD, the production of HjOj is a measure of the concentration of free DNP-ACA in the sample. 

In another study, a microchip-based electrochemical enzyme immunoassay was developed by Chatrathi and colleagues [65] and its performance is demonstrated for the determination of monoclonal mouse IgG as a model analyte. The direct homogeneous immunoassay requires the integration of electrokinetic mixing of ALP-labeled anti-mouse IgG antibody (Ab-E) with the mouse IgG antigen (Ag) analyte in a precolumn reaction chamber, injection of immunochemical products into the separation channel, followed by rapid electrophoretic separation of enzyme-labeled free antibody and enzyme-labeled antibody-antigen complex. The separation is followed by a postcolumn reaction of enzyme tracer with p-aminophenyl... 

In summary, it can be stated that methods of electrochemical detection are very applicable to enzyme immunoassays. Broadly speaking, the above examples demonstrate that homogeneous EIA are faster and simpler but often less sensitive and more subject to interference than heterogeneous EIA. The latter are less sensitive to interference and electrode fouling because the measuring chamber in front of the electrode is rinsed before determination of the marker activity. However, none of the methods described is suitable for continuous measurement. 

This chapter presents an approach to perform enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) in a microfluidic format with electrochemical detection. This field of analytical chemistry has shown a strong activity in recent years, and many reports have presented the use of capillary-sized reactors for running immunoassays either in homogeneous format (where the antigen-antibody complex and the labelled revelation reagents are separated prior to detection, as for instance by capillary electrophoresis [1-3]) or in heterogeneous format (where the antibody is immobilised on the inner surface of the microsensor device [4] or on microbeads [5,6]). 

---