Streptavidin-biotin complex detection

Musiani, M., Zerbini, M., Plazzi, M., Gentilomi, G., and LaPlaca, M. (1988) Immunocytochemical detection of antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen by a streptavidin-biotin-complex assay. J. Clin. Microbiol. 26, 1005-1008. 

Figure 1. Conventional immunohistochemical detection methods. Florseradish peroxidase (HRP) and alkaline phosphatase are commonly employed as enzymes for visualization with chromogen. A The polymer -based method in which dextran polymer is commonly used. B Streptavidin/biotin reaction-based methods including the labeled streptavidin (LSAB) and streptavidin-biotin complex (sABC) methods.

Other significant improvements were the development of the enzymatic antigen retrieval methods by Huang et al. [18] and the improvement of systems for secondary antibody detection with the introduction of the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex (ABC) and the labeled streptavidin-biotin complex (LSAB) by Hsu etal. [19-22]. 

HSV in human fibroblasts was detected using biotin-labeled HSV DNA probes, streptavidin-HRP complex, and enhanced CL substrate reagent for HRP [56], The presence of HSV DNA was observed in cells infected with clinical samples known to contain the HSV virus fixed at 48 h postinfection, with a sharp topographical localization and a good preservation of cellular morphology. 

Avidin-biotin complex (ABC) is based on the high affinity that streptavidin (from Streptomyces avidinii) and avidin (from chicken egg) have for biotin. Biotin is a naturally occurring vitamin. One mole avidin will bind four moles biotin. ABC method affords a several-fold higher antigen detectability than those achieved in the standard indirect method. 

Tyramide signal amplification (TSA PerkinElmer Life Sciences, Boston) and enzyme-labeled fluorescence (ELF Molecular Probes) are related detection technologies. In the tyramide amplification process, a tyramide-biotin complex is produced by the action of horseradish peroxidase. The complex precipitates near the binding site and accumulates. The complex is detected by the use of streptavidin-Cy3/Cy5. 

A variation on the theme of conventional assay uses both lanthanide-labeled and biotin-labeled single strands to form split probes for sequence of target strands (Figure 12).120 When both of these bind to DNA, the complex binds (via the biotin residue) to a surface functionalized with streptavidin, immobilizing the europium and allowing assay to be carried out. This approach is already very sensitive to DNA sequence, since both sequences must match to permit immobilization of the lanthanide, but can be made even more sensitive by using PCR (the polymerase chain reaction) to enhance the concentration of DNA strands. In this way, initial concentrations corresponding to as few as four million molecules can be detected. This compares very favorably with radioimmunoassay detection limits. 

A similar type of biotin-dendritic multimer also was used to boost sensitivity in DNA microarray detection by 100-fold over that obtainable using traditional avidin-biotin reagent systems (Stears, 2000 Striebel et al., 2004). With this system, a polyvalent biotin dendrimer is able to bind many labeled avidin or streptavidin molecules, which may carry enzymes or fluorescent probes for assay detection. In addition, if the biotinylated dendrimer and the streptavidin detection agent is added at the same time, then at the site of a captured analyte, the biotin-dendrimer conjugates can form huge multi-dendrimer complexes wherein avidin or streptavidin detection reagents bridge between more than one dendrimer. Thus, the use of multivalent biotin-dendrimers can become universal enhancers of DNA hybridization assays or immunoassay procedures. 

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