Silver nanoparticle enhanced immunoassays: one step real time kinetic assay for insulin in serum

Silver nanoparticle enhanced fluorescence is introduced as an alternative method to surface plasmon resonance techniques for real time monitoring of biorecognitive interactions or immunoassays. This method relies on the phenomenon that an electromagnetic near field is generated upon illumination on the surface of silver nanoparticles. The interaction of this field with nearby fluorophores results in fluorescence enhancement. Thus, fluorophores in the bulk solution can be discriminated from surface bound fluorophores. Anti-insulin-antibodies were immobilized on the surface of silver colloids in the following order: A ready to use microplate was prepared by bottom up coating with layers of aminosilane, silver nanoparticles, Fc-recognizing F(ab)(2)-fragments and anti-insulin-antibodies. At equilibrium conditions fluorescein-labeled insulin could only be detected in the presence of the colloid; the detection limit was 250 nM, and a fourfold increase in fluorescence was observed upon real time monitoring. The competitive assay of labeled and unlabeled insulin revealed a working range of 10-200 nM insulin in serum. The rapid single step immunoassay is easy to perform even in microplate format, its sensitivity is comparable to ELISA techniques, and offers broad application for real time monitoring of molecular recognitive processes.