Specific binding assays

• US 6,294,391 B1
• Filed: 05/22/1997
• Issued: 09/25/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Inverness Medical Switzerland GmbH (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Unilever Patent Holdings BV (Unilever PLC)
• Inventors: Berry, Mark J., Wattam, Trevor A., Badley, Robert A., Porter, Philip
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Christopher L.
• Application Number:
  US08/861,693
• Time in Patent Office: 1,587 Days
• Field of Search: 310/311, 310/313.R, 310/340, 385/12, 385/129, 385/130, 422/55, 422/57, 422/82.05, 422/82.11, 435/287.1, 435/287.2, 435/288.7, 435/808, 435/972, 436/164, 436/512, 436/513, 436/518, 436/524, 436/525, 436/527, 436/805, 436/815, 436/819
• US Class Current: 436/518
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/54373 involving physiochemical end-point determination, e.g. wave-guides, FETS, gratings
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/558 using diffusion or migration of antigen or antibody immunochromatographic test strips G01N33/54387
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/743 Steroid hormones

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of detecting the presence of an analyte of interest in a sample, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a binding partner reversibly immobilised on a solid support, said binding partner having binding specificity for the analyte;

contacting the sample with the solid support;

specifically displacing the binding partner from the solid support in response to the presence of the analyte of interest in the sample, said displacement causing a reduction in the mass of material immobilised on the solid support, thereby generating a detectable change in a mass-dependent property of the solid support; and

detecting said change. Also disclosed is an assay device for performing the method of the invention.

Claims

1. A method of detecting the presence of an analyte of interest in a sample, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a solid support comprising an analogue of the analyte of interest, said solid support further comprising a binding partner reversibly immobilised thereon by interaction with said analogue, the binding partner having lower binding affinity for the analogue than for the analyte of interest;

specifically displacing the bin din g partner from the solid support in response to the presence of the analyte of interest in the sample, said displacement causing a reduction in the mass of material immobilised on the solid support, thereby generating a detect able change in a mass-dependent property of the solid support; and

detecting the presence of said analyte of interest by detecting said change.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the reversibly immobilised binding partner is an immunoglobulin or a functional binding fragment thereof.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the reversibly immobilised binding partner is a bispecific antibody.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the analogue of the analyte of interest is covalently bound to the solid support.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the solid support comprises part of a biosensor device.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the solid support comprises part of an evanescent wave, acoustic wave or surface plasmon resonance sensor device.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the analyte of interest is estradiol, or a metabolite thereof.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the analyte of interest is estrone-3-glucuronide or estriol-3-glucuronide.