Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant protein in human blood plasma. It is commonly used as a biomarker in urine samples to identify the chronic kidney disease (CKD) caused by high blood pressure or diabetes. In our research, a thin layer of liquid crystals (LCs) is used as a readout system for developing an immunoassay that reports the presence of HSA in the aqueous solution with optical signals. The detection principle of this assay is based on the variation of surface density of protein upon the specific binding of HSA on anti-HSA immobilized surface, which leads a dark-to-bright transition of LC images under cross polarizers. Our results show that the LC-based immunoassay can detect HSA at concentration of 50 ug/mL. By using the slide with immobilized anti-HSA in array format, the concentration level of HSA can be simply determined by the number of LC spot shown on the slide.
Relation:
The first OPU–TKU International Symposium on Frontier Chemistry and Materials for the 21st Century
