Development of Chemiluminescent Immunoassays Based on Magnetic Beads

Chemiluminescent immunoassays (CLIAs) offer one of the best solutions for the quantification of low concentrations of specific analytes from a complex mixture for in vitro diagnostic industry. The assay format is similar to enzyme-linked immunoassays, usually based on heterogeneous assays where antibodies or antigens are immobilized on a solid phase but one of the components is conjugated with a chemiluminescent label. The benefits of CLIAs can be enhanced using magnetic beads as a solid platform which improves the separation of the un-bound reagents and reduces the interferences using a magnetic field. The CLIA assays based on magnetic beads together with chemiluminescent tagging of immunoreagents are widely used in high throughput automated platforms obtaining an amplified signal and decreasing the matrix interferences. The complexity of these type of immunoassays rely on the optimization of several components and parameters. The critical points are highly related to the type of immunoassay format that best suits the desired specifications, magnetic beads selection and conjugation conditions for magnetic particles and chemiluminescent labelling parameters.