Engineering the Surface Properties of a Zwitterionic Polymer Brush to Enable the Simple Fabrication of Inkjet-Printed Point-of-Care Immunoassays

Langmuir. 2019 Feb 5;35(5):1379-1390. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b01597. Epub 2018 Aug 21.

Abstract

Motivated by the lack of adventitious protein adsorption on zwitterionic polymer brushes that promise low noise and hence high analytical sensitivity for surface-based immunoassays, we explored their use as a substrate for immunoassay fabrication by the inkjet printing of antibodies. We observed that a poly(sulfobetaine)methacrylate brush on glass is far too hydrophilic to enable the noncovalent immobilization of antibodies by inkjet printing. To circumvent this limitation, we developed a series of hybrid zwitterionic-cationic surface coatings with tunable surface wettability that are suitable for the inkjet printing of antibodies but also have low protein adsorption. We show that in a microarray format in which both the capture and detection antibodies are discretely printed as spots on these hybrid brushes, a point-of-care sandwich immunoassay can be carried out with an analytical sensitivity and dynamic range that is similar to or better than those of the same assay fabricated on a PEG-like brush. We also show that the hybrid polymer brushes do not bind anti-PEG antibodies that are ubiquitous in human blood, which can be a problem with immunoassays fabricated on PEG-like coatings.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Immobilized / immunology
  • Cattle
  • Humans
  • Immunoassay / methods*
  • Interleukin-6 / blood
  • Interleukin-6 / immunology
  • Methacrylates / chemical synthesis
  • Methacrylates / chemistry*
  • Point-of-Care Testing
  • Printing / instrumentation
  • Rabbits
  • Wettability

Substances

  • Antibodies, Immobilized
  • IL6 protein, human
  • Interleukin-6
  • Methacrylates
  • sulfobetaine methacrylate polymer