Creating highly amplified enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay signals from genetically engineered bacteriophage

For early detection of many diseases, it is critical to be able to diagnose small amounts of biomarkers in blood or serum. One of the most widely used sensing assays is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which typically uses detection monoclonal antibodies conjugated to enzymes to produce colorimetric signals. To increase the overall sensitivities of these sensors, we demonstrate the use of a dually modified version of filamentous bacteriophage Fd that produces significantly higher colorimetric signals in ELISAs than what can be achieved using antibodies alone. Because only a few proteins at the tip of the micron-long bacteriophage are involved in antigen binding, the approximately 4000 other coat proteins can be augmented-by either chemical functionalization or genetic engineering-with hundreds to thousands of functional groups. In this article, we demonstrate the use of bacteriophage that bear a large genomic fusion that allows them to bind specific antibodies on coat protein 3 (p3) and multiple biotin groups on coat protein 8 (p8) to bind to avidin-conjugated enzymes. In direct ELISAs, the anti-rTNFα (recombinant human tumor necrosis factor alpha)-conjugated bacteriophage show approximately 3- to 4-fold gains in signal over that of anti-rTNFα, demonstrating their use as a platform for highly sensitive protein detection.