Rapid homogeneous immunoassay of peptides based on bioluminescence resonance energy transfer from firefly luciferase.

A sensitive homogeneous immunoassay is needed in the field of clinical diagnostics. Here we propose a rapid and potentially sensitive homogeneous immunoassay of peptide epitope based on the bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET). A GST peptide tag fused to the N-terminus of firefly luciferase, and Cy3 or Cy3.5-labeled anti-peptide antibody were prepared to detect BRET from the hybrid luciferase to the fluorolabeled antibody. By measuring the spectral change due to BRET, the amount of c-myc peptide was successfully determined in a short period.