Development of a nano-SiO2 based enzyme-linked ligand binding assay for the determination of ibuprofen in human urine.

The application domains of classic enzyme-linked ligand binding assay (ELBA) is relatively narrow due to the high cost and hardly available binding receptor. In here, we described for the first time the possibility of developing a new ELBA based on silica nanoparticles (nano-SiO2) to assess the ibuprofen in human urine. Nano-SiO2 with a large surface area was introduced as stationary phase to improve the analytical performance. In the experiment, a competitively binding procedure with human serum albumin (HSA) was performed between the ibuprofen presented in sample and horseradish peroxidase labeled ibuprofen (HRP-ibuprofen) subsequently added. After centrifugal separation, the HRP/ibuprofen/nano-SiO2 composite catalyzed the substrate solution (TMB/H2O2) with a color change from colorless to yellow for quantitative measurement via an ultraviolet spectrophotometer. As a validation of the new principle, the developed nano-ELBA method was applied in the determination of ibuprofen excreted in human urine with excellent performance. This detection range only depends on the solubility of ligand and sensitivity of UV spectrophotometer. Our results indicate that this new method demonstrated to be able to rapidly and adequately determine the concentration of components in biological samples and advocate its effectiveness for various applications.