Competitive ELISA

The most common use of protein microarrays is in immunoassays. In particular, antibody-based immunoassays are the main stream of diagnostic assays due to their specificity. The assay usually runs in a multiplexed mode where the antibodies or other capture agents are immobilized and then exposed to a biological sample. There are four immunoassay formats direct binding, sandwich (ELISA), competitive, and displacement. Direct-binding and sandwich assays are the most common. There are some reports on the use of competitive assays and displacement assays, which are usually associated with high surface area/volume systems [72-76],... 

Key Words ELISA competition binding substrate antibody pairs standard curve. 

Fig.4. Competition ELISAbetween antibody 10D5 and viologen dimer 2.Anmnber of antibody molecules are immobilized on the ELISA plate at lower concentrations of viologen dimer 2...

The microplate ELISA testis conducted in standard 96-well microplates. A microplate consists of a 12 X 8 grid of wells for test solutions. The three most widely used ELISA formats are immobilized antigen competitive immunoassay, immobilized antibody competitive immunoassay and sandwich immunoassay. " ... 

The following is a generic description of the immobilized antigen ELISA (Figure 2), commonly termed indirect competitive immunoassay, on a microtiter plate. 

Another commonly used ELISA format is the immobilized antibody assay or direct competitive assay (Eigure 3). The primary anti-analyte antibody is immobilized on the solid phase and the analyte competes with a known amount of enzyme-labeled hapten for binding sites on the immobilized antibody. Eirst, the anti-analyte antibody is adsorbed on the microtiter plate wells. In the competition step, the analyte and enzyme-labeled hapten are added to microtiter plate wells and unbound materials are subsequently washed out. The enzyme substrate is then added for color production. Similarly to indirect competitive immunoassay, absorption is inversely proportional to the concentration of analyte. The direct competitive ELISA format is commonly used in commercial immunoassay test kits. 

Alternatively, competitive ELISA can be used to estimate the hapten density if an antibody that specitically recognizes the hapten is available. At first observation this approach seems circular because the immunoassay developed is used to determine hapten density on proteins used for immunization. However, if a small molecule mimic of the protein conjugate is used as a standard, the method can be accurate. For example, a hapten containing a carboxylic acid can be coupled to phenethylamine or tyramine, its structure confirmed and the material used to generate a calibratron curve to estimate hapten density. 

Figure 1 Schematic sequence of the direct and indirect competitive ELISA. The principle difference is that for direct competitive immunoassay, the well is coated with primary antibody directly, and for indirect competitive immunoassay, the well is coated with antigen. Primary antibody (Y), blocking protein (Y), analyte (T), analyte-tracer ( ), enzyme labeled secondary antibody ), color development ( J)...

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Li and Li developed an ELISA procedure for imidacloprid to determine its residues in coffee cherry and bean extracts. A 25-g amount of sample extracted with 300 mL of methanol and 1% sulfuric acid (3 1, v/v) for 3 min. An aliquot of the sample extract (0.5 mL) is mixed with 1 mL of water and a gentle stream of nitrogen is used to evaporate methanol. The solution is then extracted with 1 mL of ethyl acetate, the extract is reconstituted in 1 mL of PBST (phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.05% Tween 20) and competitive ELISA is performed to quantify imidacloprid in the extract. Eor methanol extracts of coffee cherries and beans fortified with imidacloprid at 0.5 mgL recoveries of imidacloprid by the ELISA method were 108 and 94, respectively. 

In a direct immunoassay the immobilized antibody binds to the corresponding antigen. The competitive immunoassay relies upon the competition of the analyte with a labelled analyte for antibody binding. These formats are widely used for high throughput affinity arrays. A sandwich immunoassay is based on the trapping or capture of the analyte by another antibody. In ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assays) the second antibody is conjugated with an enzyme. The bound enzyme labelled antibody is detected by its ability to break down its substrate to a colored product. 

Figure 2 Schematic picture of a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

There exists a wide variety in the setup of ELISA assays (direct binding or competition setups) and the enzymatic reaction utilized [148]. A similar principle to enhance sensitivity by enzymatic coupling is realized after gel electrophoretic separation of proteins. Here proteins are transferred to nitrocellulose ( western blot ) and detected by antibody-coupled enzymes. 

Other attempts have been made to detect BPA at a low concentration range. Thus Kodaira et al. [274] analyzed BPA in urine samples with an assay that showed a working range between 0.5 and 5 pg L The assay was validated by HPLC. DeMeulenaer et al. [275] developed an indirect competitive ELISA using PAbs obtained from chicken egg yolk, but the assay achieved an IC50 value of only 570 pg L-1. 

Several qualitative and quantitative immunochemical methods for CAP analysis in biological matrices of animal origin have been described [101,102, 104,105] (see Table 3). Van de Water et al. [ 102] described an ELISA that detected CAP in swine muscle tissue with an IC50 value of 3 ng mL1. This immunoassay was improved and subsequently optimized incorporating the streptavidin-biotin amplification system. There are also several commercially available test kits (see Table 4). RIDASCREEN is a competitive enzyme immunoassay for the quantitative analysis of CAP residues in milk, eggs, and meat in a microtiter plate. The measurement is made photometrically, obtaining a LOD of 100 ng L 1 in meat and eggs and 150 ng L 1 in milk. The test has been also applied to the analysis of tetracyclines. 

Regarding commercially available immunochemical kits, we could mention the Charm ROSA Enrofloxacin Test that detects ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin equally (see Table 4) and the 5101ERFXlp test. This last one is a direct competitive ELISA, which uses MAbs and has a LOD of 3 ng g1 in tissues. Some other companies do have antibodies available as reagents for different applications such as Biodesign International and QED Bioscience Inc. 

Regarding sensors, Draisci et al. [100] reported the development of an electrochemical competitive ELISA for the detection of erythromycin and tylosin in bovine muscle. They used MAbs against these two macrolides and the activity... 

Enzyme labels are usually associated with solid-phase antibodies in the technique known as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). There are several variants of this technique employing both competitive and non-competitive systems. However it is best used in combination with two monoclonal antibodies in the two-site format in which an excess of antibody is bound to a solid phase such as a test-tube or microtitre plate the test antigen is then added and is largely sequestered by the antibody (Figure 7.12). After washing... 

A competitive ELISA assay for Lp(a) was recently described (Y4) in which the microtiter plate was coated with Lp(a) purified from a pool of donors. The method is simple and easy to perform, with satisfactory analytical parameters. A good stability and a reproducible coating of plates with the large Lp(a) lipoprotein is, however, critical in this type of assay. Wang et al. (W6) described an indirect sandwich assay for the measurement of Lp(a) in plasma and in dried blood spots, which can be applied to screening elevated Lp(a) levels in newborns (V3, V4). 

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