the adsorption of 1 pg of material/m2.7 A reference flow cell was
constructed by immobilization of progesterone-OEG-OVA.6
Binding Signal Enhancements and Competitive Assay of
CAP (Figure 1). Signal enhancement by IgG/nanogold particles
was determined by injecting a fixed amount of mAb solution (60
µL, 20 µL/min) over the immobilized surface, following sequential
injection of IgG/nanogold (40 µL, 20 µL/min) at various dilution
ratios (see Supporting Information). The IgG/nanogold enhance-
ment curves were produced by varying the concentration of mAb
in HBS (0-1 µg/mL) but keeping the Au nanoparticles diluted
to a ratio of 1:2 (10 nm IgG/nanogold), and 1:10 (40 nm IgG/
nanogold). Regeneration was performed with two pulses of 10 mM
glycine (pH 2.0, 20 µL/min).
Honey spiked-CAP samples were prepared according to a
literature reference8 with some modification. In briefly, 5.0 ± 0.02 g
of New Zealand honey was weighed into a plastic centrifuge tube
and mixed with 9 mL of PBS/T buffer (pH 7.4) until it went into
solution. Then the samples were spiked with 1 mL of the CAP
working standard solution or HBS buffer for the blank and
incubated 5 min at room temperature. A volume of 12 mL of ethyl
acetate was added, and the sample was mixed for 30 s with a
vortex and then shaken for 30 min on a rolling mixer. Following
centrifugation at 3200 rpm for 15 min, 5 mL of the organic layer
was transferred to a test tube and evaporated to dryness under
nitrogen. The dried sample residue was reconstituted in 1 mL of
HBS buffer containing 0.5% methanol and sonicated until it
dissolved completely. The samples were ready for the following
competitive assays.
Competitive assays were determined by mixing mAb (1 µg/
mL for 10 nm nanogold and 0.2 µg/mL for 40 nm nanogold
enhancement assays) with a series of standard CAP solutions in
HBS buffer or honey spiked-samples (1:1 v/v). After incubation
for 30 min, the mixture was then injected (60 µL, 20 µL/min)
into the sensor surface, followed by sequential injection of IgG/
nanogold particles (40 µL for 2 min). Final regeneration was
achieved using the same procedure as above. The results were
analyzed statistically using Sigma Plot version 8.0 (SPSS, Chicago,
IL). All assay standard curves were fitted to a four-parameter
logistic plot.
Determination of Antibody Cross-Reactivity. The cross-
reactivity profile of the antibody with thiamphenicol (TAP) and
chloramphenicol-base (CAP-base) was determined in buffer using
the same assay conditions as described in the competitive assay
of CAP. The cross-reactivity value for each drug was calculated
by comparing the IC50 for CAP with the IC50 for TAP and CAP-
base according to the following equation:9
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Immobilization of CAP-OEG-OVA Conjugate onto mSAM
Surface. Previous work on the design of protein conjugates has
shown that the insertion of a water-soluble, 23-atom long OEG
linker10 between the small molecule and the protein can signifi-
cantly increase the degree of hapten density in the protein
conjugate.6 In the present work, the CAP-OEG-OVA conjugate 4
was prepared by the same procedure6 and a similar hapten (CAP)
number of 11 was achieved (see Supporting Information). There
are several advantages in attaching protein conjugates onto the
mSAM surface rather than direct attachment of small molecules.
These include (1) the surface density of the small molecule can
be increased by attachment of small molecules through multiple
sites of amino acid residues on the three-dimensional surface
structure of the protein and (2) protection and stabilization of the
potentially vulnerable mSAM surface by covering the mSAM with
the proteins and making the hydrophobic mSAM surface hydro-
philic, which also prevents nonspecific binding. In the present
study, we have demonstrated an additional benefit whereby the
protein conjugates can increase the stability of the chemical bonds
between the antigen and the surface. In our work, the CAP is
covalently linked to the OEG via an ester linkage, which is easily
hydrolyzed under acidic or basic conditions (Scheme 1). However,
this vulnerable ester linkage is stable in the CAP-OEG-OVA
conjugate 4 on the mSAM surface, on which over 400 regenera-
tions were performed under acidic conditions (pH 2.0) without
damaging the antigen surface (Figure 1). Such chemical stability
of the protein conjugate is important since many small molecules
have no primary amine or carboxylic groups appropriate for a
stable amide linked immobilization. Therefore, protein conjugation
is an excellent alternative approach in immobilizing these small
molecules without the need for a stable amide linkage.
Au Nanoparticle Enhanced Bindings and Sensitivity
Improvement. SPR assay has been widely employed for rapid
biomolecular interaction studies including detection of small
molecules.11 The label-free format of SPR, however, has limited
applications for ultrasensitive bioanalysis because of limited
surface refractive index changes for detection particularly for small
molecules. For example, current SPR inhibition assays for small
molecules have only achieved an LOD of 0.1 ng/mL12-14 with
monoclonal antibodies, or an LOD of 20 pg/mL15 with a polyclonal
antibody, as binding agents. To address this limitation, we have
recently developed an SPR assay of small molecules by using 10
nm Au nanoparticles for signal enhancement on a mSAM surface
immobilized with analyte-protein conjugates.6 The assay achieved
the lowest reported LOD of 4.9 pg/mL for progesterone and also
created a stable mSAM sensor surface as demonstrated by the
performance of over 400 binding/regenerations. However, it is
(10) Li, L.; Chen, S.; Zheng, J.; Ratner, B. D.; Jiang, S. J. Phys. Chem. B 2005,
IC50 for CAP
IC50 for TAP or CAP-base
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(14) Kim, S. J.; Gobi, K. V.; Harada, R.; Shankaran, D. R.; Miura, N. Sens.
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