Selective and sensitive homogenous assay of serum albumin with 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulphonate as a biosensor

• 1-Anilinonaphthalene-8-sulphonate (ANS) emitted at 470 nm in organic solvents.
• The complex of ANS and albumin (ALB) was effectively excited at 280 and 350 nm.
• In 20.0 mM phosphate at pH 7.0, ANS < 0.65 μM bound to ALB at 1:1 with Kd of 0.13 μM.
• At 0.3 μM ANS in the buffer, fluorescence at 470 nm was proportional to ALB levels.
• New method had stronger resistance to interference and higher sensitivity than classical methods.

Homogenous selective assay of albumin (ALB) in clinical sera was tested with 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulphonate (ANS) as Förster-resonance-energy-transfer (FRET) acceptor of tryptophan residues and biosensor of ALB. Between the excitation at 280 and 350 nm, the ratio of the fluorescence at 470 nm of free ANS in ethanol was about 1.9 while that of the complexes of ALB and ANS was about 3.9, supporting FRET in complexes of ANS and ALB. ANS below 1.0 mM saturated one site of ALB with Kd of about 0.13 μM in 20 mM sodium phosphate buffer at pH 7.0. For selective assay of ALB, 0.30 μM ANS was used to quantify fluorescence of the complexes at 470 nm under the excitation at 280 nm. ALB from 1.8 to 25 nM was quantified, whose lower limit was below 1% than that by bromocresol green assay while one-third than that by immunoturbidimetric assay. Globular proteins at comparable levels gave negligible signals. This new method showed reasonable resistance to other interfering substances in clinical sera. Quantities of ALB in clinical sera by this method were consistent with those by bromocresol green assay and immunoturbidimetric assay. Hence, homogenous assay of ALB with ANS as FRET biosensor was effective.

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