Europium nanoparticle−based simple to perform dry-reagent immunoassay for the detection of Hepatitis B surface antigen
: Sheikh M. Talha, Teppo Salminen, Etvi Juntunen, Anni Spangar, Chandrasekhar Gurramkonda, Tytti Vuorinen, Navin Khanna, Kim Pettersson
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
: 2016
: Journal of Virological Methods
: J VIROL METHODS
: 229
: 66
: 69
: 4
: 0166-0934
: 1879-0984
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jviromet.2016.01.001
Hepatitis B infection, caused by Hepatitis B virus (HBV), presents a huge global health burden. Serological diagnosis of HBV mainly relies on the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Although there are high sensitivity commercial HBsAg enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) available, many low-resource laboratories lacking trained technicians continue to use rapid point-of-care assays with low sensitivities for HBsAg detection, due to their simplicity to operate. We developed a time-resolved fluorometric dry-reagent HBsAg immunoassay which meets the detection limit of high sensitivity EIAs but is simple to operate. To develop the assay, anti-HBsAg monoclonal antibody coated on europium nanoparticles was dried atop of biotinylated anti-HBsAg polyclonal antibody immobilized on streptavidin-coated microtiter wells. To test a sample in dry-reagent assay, serum sample and assay buffer were added to the wells, incubated, washed and europium signals were measured. The assay showed a detection limit of 0.25 ng/ml using HBsAg spiked in serum sample. When evaluated with 24HBV positive and 37 negative serum samples, assay showed 100% sensitivity and specificity. Assay wells are stable for at least 26 weeks when stored at 4 °C, and can tolerate elevated temperatures of up to 35 °C for two weeks. The developed assay has high potential to be used in low-resource laboratories.