Immunoassay cost-effective

The advantages of homogenous immunoassays are simple formats and rapid data output producing user-friendly and cost-effective products. Technical challenges to consider, however, are the necessity to remove or minimize background interference from the reagents and nonspecific binding reactions. 

The application of immunoassays to the determination of various urea pesticides have been reported (181,182), and this technique has a great potential for residue analysis by using rapid, simple, and cost-effective tests (183,184). 

Immunoassay (IA) techniques provide rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective analyses for a variety of pesticide residues. However, rapid progress in the analytical determination of pesticides by HPLC separation and selective detection clearly demonstrates that IA can not compete in terms of the information obtained about the sample composition. The main disadvantage of IA is that only one compound at time can be determined (24). 

Food products are prone to accidental or deliberate abuse anywhere in the food processing/storage/distribution/consumption cycle, starting from raw materials to finished products. Faced with this problem a food analyst needs rapid, sensitive, reliable and cost effective techniques. Immunoassays are ideally suited for this type of tasks and their role in food diagnostics is expanding due to the numerous analytes like adulterants/additives, allergens and contaminants/toxins that it can detect. For more detailed information on applications of immunoassays one can refer to some of the recent review articles and books (11-13, 38, 44). 

Affinity assays using antibodies (immunoassays), enzymes, or nucleic acids have been established in research, clinical diagnosis, and industry for many years. However, for portable, easy to use, cost-effective devices, new sensitive receptors and measuring principles are needed. 

Cost Effectiveness. As with the other advantages of immunochemical analysis, cost may be quite variable. Reagent costs for several automated systems have been estimated at under 1.25 per sample. The cost is obviously much lower for less sophisticated assay systems, especially if some reagents are prepared in house. A major consideration is the expense of new instrumentation. For dedicated or automated instrumentation for either RIA or ELISA procedures, the cost may be 50-100,000. However, most analytical laboratories already have the basic instrumentation needed for immunoassays. Moderate sensitivity can be obtained through the use of numerous procedures such as radial immunodiffusion and hemagglutination. These procedures require no expensive equipment or reagents and they may be very useful in areas where equipment acquisition or maintenance is a problem. 

Tschmelak JG, Proll J, Riedt J et al (2005) Part I project objectives, basic technology, immunoassay development, software design and networking. Part II intelligent, remote controlled, cost effective, on-line, water monitoring measurement system. Biosens Bioelectron 20 1499-1519... 

The properties of high specificity and a wide applicability with many analytes have led to the widespread use of immunoanalytical techniques. The benefits of electrochemical sensors include technical simplicity, speed, and convenience via direct transduction to electronic equipment. Combining these two systems offers the possibility of a convenient assay technique with high selectivity. Because of the complexity of immunoassay methods, such devices have not yet found widespread use. Nevertheless, electrochemical immuno-sensors offer the potential for fast, simple, cost-effective analysis of many... 

TDM of immunosuppressants by LC-MS was recently reviewed [29-30]. Despite the high investment needed for LC-MS, TDM of immunosuppressive dmgs by LC-MS is more cost effective than the conventional immunoassays. Savings of 40% per test have been indicated [24, 31]. In addition, due to the absence of cross reactivity, LC-MS is generally more accurate. An interlaboratory study for the LC-MS analysis of sirohmus was performed [32]. 

Any decision to develop other new immunoassays will depend on the success of the three projects still underway. However, we will continue to monitor the development of immunoassays by both other government agencies and by industry to identify tests relevant to our mission. By adapting commercially developed immunoassays as well as funding methods development for specific compounds, we hope to keep our environmental analysis program as efficient and cost-effective as possible. 

The use of immunoassays in the field of agricultural research has increased dramatically in recent years, and has become a reliable analytical tool that possesses numerous advantages over standard, chemical extraction and analytical methods. A few Of these advantages (described in several review articles (1,2)), include its greater sensitivity and specificity, the increased speed of the assay, which allows greater sample thrdugh-put, the requirement for smaller samples for extraction, and the assay s improved cost effectiveness. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) have been... 

Despite all of these obstacles, the development of immunochemical methods has continued over the last two decades, and in many cases they have proved to be fast, cost-effective, easy to use and fit for purpose technologies, that can make an important contribution in the field of environmental analysis. This chapter provides a brief description of the basics and principles of immunoassay, together with a selection of examples of environmental applications, especially with respect to the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD). 

Immunochemical methods are rapidly gaining acceptance as analytical techniques for pesticide residue analysis. Unlike most quantitative methods for measuring pesticides, they are simple, rapid, precise, cost effective, and adaptable to laboratory or field situations. The technique centers around the development of an antibody for the pesticide or environmental contaminant of interest. The work hinges on the synthesis of a hapten which contains the functional groups necessary for recognition by the antibody. Once this aspect is complete, immunochemical detection methods may take many forms. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is one form that has been found useful in residue applications. This technique will be illustrated by examples from this laboratory, particularly molinate, a thiocarbamate herbicide used in rice culture. Immunoassay development will be traced from hapten synthesis to validation and field testing of the final assay. 

The ability to perform quantitative assays on complex mixtures with little sample clean-up is perhaps the most attractive feature of immunoassays for application to agricultural chemistry. A large portion of the cost and labor involved in pesticide residue analysis is invested in sample extraction and clean-up steps to remove substances which may interfere with subsequent chemical analysis. Since most preparatory steps are not required prior to performing an immunoassay, samples can be analyzed much less expensively. This will permit the vast number of data points required for pesticide registration to be gathered in a more timely and cost-effective manner. Studies which were prohibitively expensive because they would have required large numbers of expensive assays can be completed using immunoassay procedures. Such studies may include analysis of pesticide movement from application areas and the rate of dissipation of pesticide from crop tissue, soils, and processed foods. 

The level of farm inputs in the U.S. is very large (Figure 5). As pressure on producers increases, the inefficient will not be successful. The 50,000 growers who are projected to be the source of 75% of America s food and fiber by the Year 2000 will adopt procedures and products to maximize their efficiency. Immunoassays will contribute to that efficiency by providing cost-effective information at the farm, local, regional, and national level. 

Immunoassays offer a sensitive, specific, cost-effective means of screening many samples for trace residues of toxic chemicals, their metabolites, and adducts. Antibodies can be used both as detectors to quantify the amount of a chemical present and in immunoaffmity chromatography to purify and concentrate material for subsequent analysis. Applications of these assays include detection of pesticide residues, mycotoxins, biomarkers of toxicity, and industrial chemicals. 

The development of a rapid on-site immunoassay system with a versatile and easy to use handheld meter provides an objective means of screening for levels of agricultural and environmental chemicals in either a remote site or laboratmy setting. This technology provides a cost effective way to obtain the timely infoimation needed in many crop management and environmental monitoring programs. 

Enzyme immunoassays (EIA) have been developed which offer a quick and inexpensive method to detect in water low levels of several environmental pollutants. The simplicity of some EIA protocols allow personnel with minimal training to screen samples. The use of an EIA as a screening method and chromatography for confirmation appears to be a cost effective approach to monitor large numbers of samples. 

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