Development of robust and standardized cantilever sensors based on biotin/NeutrAvidin coupling for antibody detection

Sensors (Basel). 2013 Apr 19;13(4):5273-85. doi: 10.3390/s130405273.

Abstract

A cantilever-based protein biosensor has been developed providing a customizable multilayer platform for the detection of antibodies. It consists of a biotin-terminated PEG layer pre-functionalized on the gold-coated cantilever surface, onto which NeutrAvidin is adsorbed through biotin/NeutrAvidin specific binding. NeutrAvidin is used as a bridge layer between the biotin-coated surface and the biotinylated biomolecules, such as biotinylated bovine serum albumin (biotinylated BSA), forming a multilayer sensor for direct antibody capture. The cantilever biosensor has been successfully applied to the detection of mouse anti-BSA (m-IgG) and sheep anti-BSA(s-IgG) antibodies. As expected, the average differential surface stress signals of about 5.7 ± 0.8 × 10(-3) N/m are very similar for BSA/m-IgG and BSA/s-IgG binding, i.e., they are independent of the origin of the antibody. A statistic evaluation of 112 response curves confirms that the multilayer protein cantilever biosensor shows high reproducibility. As a control test, a biotinylated maltose binding protein was used for detecting specificity of IgG, the result shows a signal of bBSA layer in response to antibody is 5.8 × 10(-3) N/m compared to bMBP. The pre-functionalized biotin/PEG cantilever surface is found to show a long shelf-life of at least 40 days and retains its responsivity of above 70% of the signal when stored in PBS buffer at 4 °C. The protein cantilever biosensor represents a rapid, label-free, sensitive and reliable detection technique for a real-time protein assay.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies / analysis*
  • Antigens / metabolism
  • Avidin / metabolism*
  • Biosensing Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Biosensing Techniques / standards*
  • Biotin / metabolism*
  • Biotinylation
  • Cattle
  • Immunoglobulin G / analysis
  • Mice
  • Reference Standards
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine / metabolism

Substances

  • Antibodies
  • Antigens
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • neutravidin
  • Avidin
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine
  • Biotin