In Situ Detection of Viral Nucleic Acids by Chemiluminescence

Abstract

Chemiluminescence is the release of light produced by a chemical reaction from particular chemically excited molecules as a result of the transition from an electronically excited state to a lower energy state, usually the ground state. This phenomenon has provided the biologist with a unique analytical tool in various analytical techniques in which small amounts of analytes can be detected and quantified by measurement of the light emitted by chemiluminescent reactions (Martin et al. 1995, Lorimier et al. 1996, Erhardt et al. 1996, Girotti et al. 1996, Kricka LJ 1998, Ross et al. 1999; Guerasimova et al. 1999; Roda et al. 1999). In the last few years, it has been demonstrated that chemiluminescent detection systems which combine the use of an enzyme and a substrate that is converted to a lightemitting product, have the highest potential sensitivity; moreover chemiluminescent systems can give precise and accurate quantitative results since the luminescent signal intensity is proportional to enzyme concentration present in the reaction (Lamarcq et al. 1995).