Preparation of Au coated polystyrene beads and their application in an immunoassay

A novel immunoassay method based on polystyrene beads coated with Au nanoparticles (Au@PS) is described. Au nanoparticles were prepared by reductive reaction, and then deposited on the surface of polystyrene beads to form Au coatings. Results indicated that the Au coatings had good stability and that human IgG was immobilized at a concentration of 16 μg/g Au@PS. FITC-labeled rabbit-anti-human IgG and FITC-labeled rabbit-anti-goat IgG were employed to react with the human IgG on Au@PS. Fluorescence imaging results showed that the reaction had good immuno-specificity. In addition, further experiments at the single-bead level indicated that the linear range was 0.05–15 μg/ml, and that the FITC signal could be detected even when the target antibody concentration was as low as 0.01 μg/ml. The assay results were compared with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and showed relatively good reliability.