HOMOGENEOUS IMMUNOASSAY FOR DETECTION OF TNT AND ITS ANALOGUES ON A MICROFABRICATED CAPILLARY ARRAY ELECTROPHORESIS CHIP

摘要

A high sensitivity homogeneous immunoassay for TNT and its analogues has been developed based on the rapid electrophoretic separation of an equilibrated mixture of an anti-TNT antibody, fluorescein-labeled TNT, and unlabeled TNT or its analogue. The band intensities of the free fluorescein-labeled TNT and of the antibody-antigen complex reveal the relative equilibrated concentrations. TNT and its analogs can be assayed with high sensitivity (LOD 1 ng/mL) and with a wide dynamic range (1-300 ng/mL) using this rapid chip-based method. A high throughput version of this homogeneous assay is developed using radial capillary array electrophoresis devices and a rotary confocal fluorescence scanner that permits the rapid analysis of 48 explosive samples in parallel.