ELECTROCHEMICAL ASSAY FOR CIS-DIOL USING METALLOCENE BORONIC ACID

摘要

The invention disclosed relates to an electrochemical assay which is particularly concerned with an assay for the presence of, or amount of, glycosylated haemoglobin in a blood sample, but which extends to a general assay for detecting the presence of, monitoring the level of or determining the concentration of compounds containing cis-diol groups, such as glycols, nucleic acid components, sugars, polyols, catechols and glycosylated proteins. When ferrocene boronic acid or a derivative thereof is present free in solution, it can act as a mediator for a wide range of oxido-reductases. However in the presence of, for example, sugars containing the cis-diol structure, the metallocene (such as ferrocene boronic acid) covalently binds to the sugar. When the ferrocene boronic acid is thus bound, it is essentially immobilized and its properties as a mediator and ability to diffuse will be markedly affected.