Oriented Antibody Immobilization and Immunoassay Based on Boronic Acid-containing Polymer Brush

Abstract

High sensitive immunoassay platforms have gained intense attention due to their vital roles in early-stage disease diagnosis and therapeutic information feedback. Although random covalent-binding of antibody has been widely adopted in immunoassays due to its simplicity and effectiveness, it readily loses its activity and fails to exhibit high antigen-binding capacity. In this work, copolymer of zwitterionic sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) brushes were immobilized onto inert polypropylene (PP) via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) based on biomimetic dopamine pretreatment. Subsequently, boronic acid (BA) groups were covalently bonded via active GMA units, followed by the introduction of oriented immobilization of antibody. Owing to the oriented immobilization of antibody facilitated by BA groups in polymer brush, the bioactivity of antibody is well preserved, which endows the surface with significantly enhanced antigen-binding capacity. Moreover, the existence of SBMA segments in polymer brushes renders the surface high resistance to nonspecific protein adsorption, significantly alleviating the signal interference of antigen recognition. This strategy could find potential applications in developing high sensitive immunoassay platforms based on the different substrates.