Gold nanoparticle-based immunoassay by using non-stripping chemiluminescence detection

A novel microplate-compatible chemiluminescence (CL) immunoassay has been developed for the determination of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) based on the luminol–AgNO3–gold nanoparticles CL system. Polystyrene microtiter plates were used for both immunoreactions and CL measurements. The primary antibody, goat-anti-human IgG, was first immobilized on polystyrene microwells. Then the antigen (human IgG) and the gold-labeled second antibody were connected to the microwells successively to form a sandwich-type immunocomplex. The gold label could trigger the reaction between luminol and AgNO3, accompanied by light emission. Under the optimized conditions, the CL intensity of the system was linear with the logarithm of the concentration of human IgG in the range from 25 to 5000 ng mL−1, with a detection limit of 12.8 ng mL−1 (∼80 pM) at a signal to noise ratio of three (S/N = 3). Compared with other reported CL immunoassay method based on gold labels, the proposed CL protocol avoids a strict stripping procedure or difficult to control synthesis processes, making the method more simple, time-saving and easily automated. The present CL method is promising for the determination of clinically important bioactive analytes.