Analytical applications of liquid-phase chemiluminescence

Light-emitting chemical reactions (chemiluminescence, CL) and biological reactions (bioluminescence, BL) have a diverse range of analytical applications but relatively few have been adopted by routine clinical laboratories. Advantages of CL and BL assays include sensitivity (attomole and sub-attomole detection limits), speed (signal generated in a few seconds and in some cases stable for several hours), nonhazardous reagents, and simple procedures. The most promising clinical applications are in immunoassay, protein blotting, and DNA probe assays. Chemiluminescent molecules exploited as labels include luminol, isoluminol, acridinium esters, thioesters and sulfonamides, and phenanthridinium esters. Separation and nonseparation assays have been devised, based on isoluminol and acridinium ester labels. The combination of the amplification properties of an enzyme and a CL or BL detection reaction provides a highly sensitive analytical system. Since 1983, CL and BL methods have been developed for many enzyme labels, e.g., alkaline phosphatase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, horseradish peroxidase, Renilla luciferase, and xanthine oxidase. Currently, the most successful enzyme assays are the enhanced CL method for a peroxidase label involving a mixture of luminol, hydrogen peroxide, and an enhancer (e.g., p-iodophenol) and the direct CL method for alkaline phosphatase, with an adamantyl 1,2-dioxetane phenyl phosphate as substrate. Both systems are very sensitive (the detection limit for alkaline phosphatase when using the dioxetane reagent is 0.001 amol) and produce long-lived light emission (greater than 30 min), which is ideal for membrane applications in which light emission is detected with photographic film or a charge-coupled device camera.

Chemiluminescent and bioluminescent techniques.

A review of environmental applications of bioluminescence measurements

A bienzyme-poly-(o-phenylenediamine)-modified carbon paste electrode for the amperometric detection of l-lactate

Development of a heterogeneous chemiluminescent flow immunoassay for DDT and related compounds

The amount of L-lactate in biological fluids (serum, plasma and cerebrospinal fluid) was determined by monitoring the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) produced by immobilised lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), with bacterial bioluminescent enzymes immobilised on a separate nylon coil. The LDH catalysed the reaction of L-lactate with NAD; this reaction took place in a nylon coil that preceded the coil for the bioluminescent detection. The co-immobilisation of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) with LDH improved the lactate transformation by 117–183%. The response was linear from 0.1 to 50 µmol l–1 at 25 °C for the LDH-ALT reactor. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were less than 5% and the recoveries ranged from 93 to 106%. The results agreed well with those obtained with a spectrophotometric method and with the normal reference values.

Bioluminescent flow sensor for the determination of L-(+)-lactate

The catalytic activity of serum L-lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), was determined by monitoring the NADH produced by LDH with bacterial bioluminescent enzymes immobilized on a nylon coil. The LDH reaction of L-lactate with NAD took place in a flow-through mixing coil that preceded the bioluminescent detector coil. The response was linear from 1 to 5000 U/l at 37 degrees C and from 3 to 2000 U/l at 25 degrees C. The intra- and inter-assay reproducibility (CV%) were less than 10% and recovery range was 92% to 110%. The results agreed well with those obtained with a spectrophotometric method.

Roberto Petilino

Papers

Bioluminescent flow sensor for the determination of L-(+)-lactate

Bioluminescent flow sensors: L-lactate dehydrogenase activity determination in serum.

Bioluminescence flow sensor for determination of creatine kinase activity in blood