Devices for use in chemical test procedures

• US 5,192,502 A
• Filed: 12/13/1990
• Issued: 03/09/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Applied Research Systems ARS Holding NV (Merck & Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ares-Serono Research & Development Limited Partnership
• Inventors: Smith, Alan M., Attridge, John W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Johnston, Jill A.
• Application Number:
  US07/623,734
• Time in Patent Office: 817 Days
• Field of Search: 422/86.06-86.08, 422/82.11, 422/57-58, 436/527, 436/531, 385/12, 385/13, 250/459.1, 356/246
• US Class Current: 422/417
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/0822 Slides
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/168 Specific optical properties, e.g. reflective coatings
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2400/0406 capillary forces
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/5027 by integrated microfluidic structures, i.e. dimensions of channels and chambers are such that surface tension forces are important, e.g. lab-on-a-chip B01L3/5023 takes precedence; micromixers B01F33/30; microreactors for synthesis B01J19/0093; microcapillary devices in general B81B1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/0346 Capillary cells; Microcells
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/7733 Reservoir, liquid reagent
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/7786 Fluorescence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/6428 Measuring fluorescence of fluorescent products of reactions or of fluorochrome labelled reactive substances, e.g. measuring quenching effects, using measuring "optrodes" in vivo A61B5/00; immunoassay G01N33/53
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/648 using evanescent coupling or surface plasmon coupling for the excitation of fluorescence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/7703 using reagent-clad optical fibres or optical waveguides using measurement of total internal reflection or attenuated total reflection G01N21/552; optical fibres or waveguides per se G02B
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/54373 involving physiochemical end-point determination, e.g. wave-guides, FETS, gratings

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for use in methods of assay, for example those involving fluorescent moieties. The device possesses a cavity or cavities into which the sample liquid may be drawn by capillary action. Each cavity is formed from two transparent solid plates (35,36): one (36) is adapted to act as a waveguide and carries a suitable immobilized reagent on its surface within the cavity; the other (35) carries on its external surface and optionally also on part only of its internal surface a layer of light-absorbing material (37). The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing devices according to the invention, and to a method of assaying for a ligand in a sample using a device according to the invention.

Claims

1. In a sample collecting and testing device used in an optical assay for analyte present in a sample liquid, said device comprising a pair of parallel transparent plates with a capillary cavity therebetween to allow uptake of sample liquid therein, one of said plates being a light-transmissive waveguide having a reagent appropriate to the assay immobilized on its internal surface, the improvement wherein the other of said plates has an opaque or light-absorbing material coated on its external surface.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the other of said plates also has an opaque or light-absorbing material coated on part of its internal surface.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein one of said plates has a soluble, releasable form of a fluorophore-labelled reagent appropriate to the assay coated on its internal surface.

4. A device for use in the fluoroimmunoassay or luminescent immunoassay of an analyte present in sample liquid, said device comprising a planar capillary cell for the collection and retention of a volume of sample liquid to be tested therein, said capillary cell comprising a pair of flat, parallel plates fixed together with an air space therebetween and sealed along two opposite sides so as to provide fixed opposed internal surfaces defining a capillary cavity with a first aperture at one end thereof to allow ingress of sample liquid in the capillary cavity and a second aperture at the other end thereof to allow egress of air from the capillary cavity as it fills with sample liquid, wherein one of said plates is a light-transmissive waveguide having an optically smooth edge which is transverse to the plane of the waveguide and perpendicular to the sealed sides thereof, said waveguide having bound to at least a portion of its internal surface, so as to be contacted in use by the sample liquid collected within the capillary cavity, an immobilised reagent capable of binding, either directly or indirectly, a labelled ligand, wherein said immobilised reagent and said labelled ligand are appropriate to the test for analyte to be carried out in the device, the labeled ligand being releasably retained within said device so as in use to be contacted by and released into the sample liquid collected therewithin, and wherein the other of said plates has an opaque or light-absorbing material coated on its external surface.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein the other of said plates also has an opaque or light-absorbing material coated on part of its internal surface.