Dual-wavebands-resolved electrochemiluminescence multiplexing immunoassay with dichroic mirror assistant photomultiplier-tubes as detectors

A dual-wavebands-resolved electrochemiluminescence (ECL) multiplexing immunoassay (MIA) was developed for simultaneously detecting alpha fetoprotein antigen (AFP) in greenish waveband with CdSe550 (λmax = 550 nm) nanocrystals (NCs) and carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) in near-infrared waveband with CdTe790 (λmax = 790 nm) NCs via one-pot ECL reaction, in which dichroic mirror works as a key part to reflect ECL from CdSe550 to one photomultiplier-tube (PMT) and transmit ECL from CdTe790 to the other PMT for dual-wavebands-resolved assay. The proposed ECL-MIA strategy was capable of simultaneously determining AFP with linearly response from 5 pg/mL to 5 ng/mL and limit of detection at 1 pg/mL, and CA125 with linearly response from 5 mU/mL to 1 U/mL and limit of detection at 1 mU/mL, with desired specificity and without obvious energy-transfer between ECL tags. The dichroic mirror assistant ECL setup is easy-to-assemble and convenient for the popularization of color-resolved multiplexing ECL assay.