Multiple-analyte fluoroimmunoassay using an integrated optical waveguide sensor

A silicon oxynitride integrated optical waveguide was used to evanescently excite fluorescence from a multianalyte sensor surface in a rapid, sandwich immunoassay format. Multiple analyte immunoassay (MAIA) results for two sets of three different analytes, one employing polyclonal and the other monoclonal capture antibodies, were compared with results for identical analytes performed in a single-analyte immunoassay (SAIA) format. The MAIA protocol was applied in both phosphate-buffered saline and simulated serum solutions. Point-to-point correlation values between the MAIA and SAIA results varied widely for the polyclonal antibodies (R2 = 0.42-0.98) and were acceptable for the monoclonal antibodies (R2 = 0.93-0.99). Differences in calculated receptor affinities were also evident with polyclonal antibodies, but not so with monoclonal antibodies. Polyclonal antibody capture layers tended to demonstrate departure from ideal receptor-ligand binding while monoclonal antibodies generally displayed monovalent binding. A third set of three antibodies, specific for three cardiac proteins routinely used to categorize myocardial infarction, were also evaluated with the two assay protocols. MAIA responses, over clinically significant ranges for creatin kinase MB, cardiac troponin I, and myoglobin agreed well with responses generated with SAIA protocols (R2 = 0.97-0.99).