A novel piezoelectric immunoagglutination assay technique with antibody-modified liposome

A simple rapid piezoelectric immunoagglutination assay (PEIA) technique with antibody-modified liposome has been developed for direct quantitative detection of human immunoglobulin G (hIgG). This technique is based on specific agglutination of antibody-coated liposome particles in the presence of the corresponding antigen, which can be monitored by the frequency shift of a piezoelectric device. Compared with conventional piezoelectric assays, this liposome-based PEIA does not require the immobilization of antigen or antibody on the quartz crystal surface, making the developed technique especially useful for rapid and renewable immunochemical determination. To alleviate non-specific adsorption of serum proteins, modification of the quartz crystal surface by different protocols and the composition of the assay medium have been investigated. The results indicate that the background interference can be substantially minimized through modifying the quartz crystal surface with a bovine serum albumin (BSA) layer and introducing an appropriate amount of BSA in the assay medium. The effects of the liposome composition, the liposome concentration and the concentration of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) in the assay medium, have also been investigated. The frequency responses of the liposome-based PEIA are linearly correlated to hIgG concentration in the range of 0.05–6 μg mL−1 with a detection limit of 50 ng mL−1.