Immobilization of unraveled immunoglobulin G using well-oriented ZZ–His protein on functionalized microtiter plate for sensitive immunoassay

Highly efficient protein immobilization is extremely crucial for solid-phase immunoassays. We present a strategy for oriented immobilization of functionally intact immunoglobulin G (IgG) on a polystyrene microtiter plate via iminodiacetic acid (IDA)–Ni2+ and ZZ–His protein interaction. We immobilized a ZZ–EAP (Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase)–His fusion protein, which exhibits Fc binding, His tag, and intrinsic AP activities, and analyzed it against the interaction between rabbit IgG anti-horseradish peroxidase (anti-HRP) and its binding partner HRP to investigate the specificity and efficacy of this method. We compared the IDA–Ni2+–(ZZ–His) method with ZZ–EAP random immobilization using sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the results showed that the former method had an enhanced signal, 10-fold higher sensitivity, and a wider linear range. Thus, the proposed method allows a broad range of oriented immobilized functionally intact IgG antibodies on polystyrene plates using only one type of IDA–Ni2+ chelate surface because the ZZ protein can bind to the Fc region of various IgGs.