Comparative study of binding constants from Love wave surface acoustic wave and surface plasmon resonance biosensors using kinetic analysis.

Biosensors are used in a variety of fields for early diagnosis of diseases, measurement of toxic contaminants, quick detection of pathogens, and separation of specific proteins or DNA. In this study, we fabricated and evaluated the capability of a high sensitivity Love wave surface acoustic wave (SAW) biosensor. The experimental setup was composed of the fabricated 155-MHz Love wave SAW biosensor, a signal measurement system, a liquid flow system, and a temperature-control system. Subsequently, we measured the lower limit of detection (LOD) of the 155-MHz Love wave SAW biosensor, and calculated the association and dissociation constants between protein G and anti-mouse IgG using kinetic analysis. We compared these results with those obtained using a commercial surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor. We found that the LOD of the SAW biosensor for anti-mouse IgG and mouse IgG was 0.5 and 1 microg/ml, respectively, and the resultant equilibrium association and dissociation constants were similar to the corresponding values obtaining using the commercial SPR biosensor. Thus, we conclude that the fabricated 155-MHz Love wave SAW biosensor exhibited the high sensitivity of the commercial SPR biosensor and was able to analyze the binding properties of the ligand and receptor by kinetic analysis similarly to the commercial SPR biosensor.