Luminometric Nanoparticle-Based Assay for High Sensitivity Detection of ß-Amyloid Aggregation.

A nanoparticle-based assay utilizing time-resolved luminescence resonance energy transfer (TR-LRET) was developed for the detection of ß-amyloid aggregation. The assay is based on the competitive adsorption of the sample and the acceptor-labeled protein to donor europium(III) polystyrene nanoparticles. The performance of the assay was demonstrated by following the fibrillization of ß-amyloid peptide 1-42 (Aß42) as a function of time and by comparing to the reference methods atomic force microscopy (AFM) and thioflavin T (ThT) assay. The fibrillization leads to reduced adsorption of Aß42 to the nanoparticles increasing the TR-LRET signal. The investigated methods detected fibril formation with equal sensitivities. Eight potential fibrillization inhibitor compounds reported in the literature were tested and the results obtained with each method were compared. It was shown with AFM imaging that the inhibition of fibril formation was not complete with any of the compounds. The developed TR-LRET nanoparticle assay gave corresponding results with the AFM imaging. However, the ThT assay led to contradictory results, as low fluorescence signal was measured in the presence of all tested compounds suggesting inhibition of fibrillization. Our results suggest that the developed TR-LRET nanoparticle assay can be exploited for screening of potential ß-amyloid aggregation inhibitors, whereas some of the tested compounds may be measured as false positive inhibitors with the much-utilized ThT assay.

Novel sensitive cardiac troponin I immunoassay free from troponin I-specific autoantibody interference.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac troponins (cTnI and cTnT) are the recommended biomarkers of myocardial infarction. As cTn-specific autoantibodies (cTnAAb) can interfere with the cTn detection by state-of-the-art cTnI assays, our objective was to develop a sensitive cTnI immunoassay free from this analytical interference. METHODS: The assay used antibody-coated spots containing three capture Mabs/Fabs directed against the N-terminus, midfragment and C-terminus of cTnI and a europium chelate-labeled tracer Mab against the C-terminus. Following a 3-h sample incubation and washing, cTnI was quantified by time-resolved fluorometry. RESULTS: The limit of detection (LoD) was 2.9 ng/L and the assay was linear up to 50,000 ng/L. The total precision of 10% CV was not reached, but 20% CV was reached at 10 ng/L. Mean cTnI (10-50,000 ng/L) recoveries were 100% and 119% in three cTnAAb-positive and two cTnAAb-negative individuals, respectively, verifying the interference resistance of the antibody design used. On average, Architect hs-cTnI assay gave seven-fold higher cTnI concentrations than the new assay but the correlation between the assays was good (r=0.958). Of apparently healthy individuals (n=159), 18% had measurable cTnI values (>LoD) and 10% were cTnAAb-positive. The proportion of measurable cTnI values, however, was significantly higher in cTnAAb-positive individuals (13/16, median cTnI 8.5 ng/L) than in cTnAAb-negative individuals (15/143, median cTnI