Hydrogen peroxide bacterial bioluminescence

ImmunO lSS iy. Chemiluminescence compounds (eg, acridinium esters and sulfonamides, isoluminol), luciferases (eg, firefly, marine bacterial, Benilla and Varela luciferase), photoproteins (eg, aequorin, Benilld), and components of bioluminescence reactions have been tested as replacements for radioactive labels in both competitive and sandwich-type immunoassays. Acridinium ester labels are used extensively in routine clinical immunoassay analysis designed to detect a wide range of hormones, cancer markers, specific antibodies, specific proteins, and therapeutic dmgs. An acridinium ester label produces a flash of light when it reacts with an alkaline solution of hydrogen peroxide. The detection limit for the label is 0.5 amol. 

Lee, J. (1972). Bacterial bioluminescence. Quantum yields and stoichiometry of the reactants reduced flavin mononucleotide, dodecanal and oxygen, and of a product hydrogen peroxide. Biochemistry 11 3350-3359. 

Bioluminescence and chemiluminescence are very powerful analytical tools, since in addition to the direct measurement of ATP, NAD(P)H or hydrogen peroxide, any compound or enzyme involved in a reaction that generates or consumes these metabolites can be theoretically assayed by one of the appropriate light-emitting reactions. Some of these possibilities have been exploited for the development of optical fibre sensors, mainly with bacterial bioluminescence and with luminol chemiluminescence. 

Hastings, J.W., Tu, S.-C., Becvar, J.E., and Presswood, R.P., Bioluminesce from the reaction of FMN, hydrogen peroxide, and long chain aldehyde with bacterial luciferase, Photochem. Photobiol, 29, 383, 1979. 

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