A straightforward immunoassay applicable to a wide range of antibodies based on surface enhanced fluorescence.

A straightforward immunoassay based on surface enhanced fluorescence (SEF) has been demonstrated using a fluorescent immune substrate and antibody functionalized-silver nanoparticles. Unlike the conventional SEF-based immunoassay, which usually uses the dye-labeled antibodies and the metallic nanostructured-substrates, the presented immune system does not need the antibodies to be labeled with dye molecules. Thus, this immunoassay can be easily applied to the detection of a wide range of target antigens, which is of great importance for its practical application. The experimental results show that this immunoassay has a good specificity as well as the capacity of quantitative detection. Basically, the surface density of the immuno-adsorbed silver nanoparticles increases with the increased amount of target antigens, resulting in a fluorescence enhancement up to around 7 fold. The dose-responsive performance of the immunoassay has been investigated and the limit of detection (LOD) is 1 ng/mL. Due to its simple preparation method and the wide range of detectable antigens, this presented immunoassay is expected to be helpful for extending the SEF-based application.