Synthetic Reagents Improve Sensitivity and Specificity of Immunoassays
By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 30 Dec 2009
Synthetic reagents enhance sensitivity and specificity in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), rapid tests, and other immunoassays by decreasing nonspecific binding and stabilizing antibody-antigen complexes.Posted on 30 Dec 2009
The wholly synthetic biocompatible bovine serum albumin (BSA) substitutes provide more effective blocking than BSA and generally improve overall signal to noise. In addition, because they are synthetic, the reagents do not require any special handling normally associated with animal-derived materials and offer consistent lot-to-lot performance.
Supplied by B-Bridge International (Mountain View, CA, USA), the Biolipidure reagents are not susceptible to degradation and protease digestion, because they are nonbiological polymers. These polymers are extremely stable at high temperature and over multiple freeze-thaw cycles. This characteristic increases the robustness of reagents containing these compounds, enables antibodies to remain functional longer, and extends the shelf life of immunoassay kits.
The basic Biolipidure monomer contains a functional side group, which introduces some variability to the different polymers. The specific molecular weights, hydrophilicity-hydrophobicity, and ionic properties of the side groups produce a range of Biolipidure reagents whose secondary characteristics vary.
Because they are completely synthetic, Biolipidure reagents do not require any special handling normally associated with animal-derived materials and there is negligible lot-to-lot variation. There is no need to optimize for each lot and purchase large amounts of a single lot to obtain consistent results.
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