Development of monoclonal antibodies and quantitative sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for the characteristic sialoglycoprotein of edible bird's nest.

The article presents a sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for identification of edible bird's nest. The characteristic sialoglycoproteins were found by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and purified by liquid-phase isoelectric focusing (LIEF). According to the analysis, the molecular weight was 106-128 kDa and the isoelectric point was ≤pH 3.0. Two anti-characteristic sialoglycoprotein monoclonal antibodies were produced. The monoclonal antibodies were examined by western-blot assay. One of the monoclonal antibody was used as coating and the other as the enzyme-labeled antibody after being coupled to horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Based on the optimized ELISA condition, the method was established with IC(50) of 1.5 ng/mL, and low cross-reactivity with various fake materials (<0.01%). ELISA provided a suitable means for screening of a large number of samples. The coefficients of variation were between 2.9% and 5.8%.