Volumetric registration of magnetic nanoparticles for optimization of quantitative immunochromatographic assays for detection of small molecules

Abstract

Precise quantitative and highly sensitive detection of small molecules (haptens) is highly demanded in medicine, food quality control, in vitro diagnostics, criminalistics, environmental monitoring, etc. In the present work, the magnetic method of particle quantification and the optical methods of spectral correlation and spectral phase interferometry complement each other for optimization of a quantitative assay for measuring concentrations of small molecules. The assay employs magnetic nanoparticles as labels in rapid immunochromatographic format. The approach was demonstrated with fluorescein as a model molecule. The interferometric label-free biosensors were employed for selection of optimal reagents that produced high specificity and sensitivity. The method of magnetic particle quantification counted the magnetic labels over the entire volume of the immunochromatographic membrane to provide their distribution along the test strip. Such distribution was used for optimization of such parameters as concentrations of the used reagents and of antibody immobilized on the labels, amount of the labels and conjugates of haptens with protein carriers to realize the advanced quantitative immunochromatographic assay.