Development of optical immunosensors and their application to the analysis of human bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7)

Abstract

In this study, a few optical immunosensors were developed to determine the concentration of BMP-7. Hydrophilic CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized and conjugated to the antibody of BMP-7 (BMP-7Ab). The QDconjugated BMP-7Ab was used as a fluorescence probe at excitation and emission wavelengths of 470 nm and 585 nm, respectively. It was immobilized either on the bottom of the well of a 96-well microtiter plate or on the tip of an optical fiber. Two immunoassays, i.e. the direct and sandwich assays, were studied for their sensitivity. The sensitivity of the direct immunoassay was 1296.21, compared to 384.69 for the sandwich assay. The linear detection range was 0.0-1.0 ng/mL for both assays. Based on the results of the microtiter plate technique, the direct assay technique was used for the development of an optical fiber immunosensor. The optical fiber immunosensor has a linear detection range between 0.0 and 10.0 ng/mL with a detection limit of 0.413 ng/mL. The optical fiber immunosensor was applied to the sequential injection analysis for the automatic determination of BMP-7.