AUTOMATIC ANALYSER; DETECTING SPECIFIC BINDING PROTEINS

摘要

The invention provides a method for detecting and determining one component of the reaction between a specific binding protein, e.g., an antibody, and the corresponding bindable substance, e.g., an antigen, by utilizing the affinity of these components for binding one another, in an automated system utilizing a continuously flowing stream of liquid. The method is carried out by introducing successive mixtures of the sample specimen with a set amount of one component of the reaction in tagged form and another, carrier-bound, component, into the liquid stream so that the individual mixtures remain separate, incubating the mixtures and continuously introducing same into a separating system in which at least a portion of the liquid phase is separated from the solid phase, and measuring the amount of the tagged component in one of the separated phases as a measure of the unknown component to be detected. For instance, an unknown antigen in a serum sample is contacted with a solid carrier bound antibody, the mixture incubated, the antigen now bound to the solid phase antibody, removed from the other mixture components and reacted with an additional marked antibody acting against the antigen, to form a sandwich containing solid-bound antibody/antigen/marked antibody, and then separating the solid phase from the liquid phase containing the remaining free-tagged antibody and determining the tagged antibody in either fraction as a measure of the serum antigen initially present.