A novel, generic, electroanalytical immunoassay format utilising silver nano-particles as a bio-label

The aim of this study was to evaluate a novel, generic, sensitive electroanalytical platform method for binding reactions, such as immuno or DNA assays. It was thought that silver nano-particles of 40 nM when attached to the analyte of interest would give an electroanalytical amplification of approx. 10(6) resulting from silver ions produced by dissolution of the nano-particles by a mild chemical oxidant such as ferricyanide. Ferricyanide has been widely used in biochemical measurement and has been shown to relatively stable in a biosensor device. Here we have demonstrated the use of silver nano-particles as a bio-conjugate in a 96 well sandwich assay format for measuring human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) to a concentration of 0.2 mIU.