A high-capacity streptavidin-coated microtitration plate.

A majority of current immunoassays rely on capturing a specific analyte on a solid phase to allow the separation of the bound analyte from nonbound components. Streptavidin-coated microtitration plates are widely used for immobilization of capturing antibodies, since they provide a generic surface for immobilization of any biotinylated molecule and preserve biomolecule activity much better than direct passive adsorption. Our trials to further improve the properties of the plates resulted in a development of a modified plate, which has higher binding capacity than currently used control plate. The modified coat was prepared by cross-linking streptavidin chemically prior to adsorption onto the microtitration well surfaces. The binding capacities of the plates were measured with biotinylated, europium-labeled molecules and labeled antigen. The immunoassay performance of the plates was studied with noncompetitive, sandwich-type assays of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). The maximum immobilization capacity of the modified plate was up to 2.5 times higher than that of the control plate. The higher binding capacity was especially emphasized with small-size molecules. The modified high capacity plate increased the linear ranges of the immunoassays and thus delayed the high-dose hook effect. At high antigen concentrations the signal increased up to 59%, and at the conventional linear ranges of the assays, the increase was up to 29%. We conclude that the modified coating method will be valuable for the future miniaturized systems, where high immobilization capacity is needed at limited areas.