Starburst dendrimers: enhanced performance and flexibility for immunoassays.

Starburst dendrimers are novel, water-soluble polymeric materials, with a well-defined composition and structure. In our application, we used dendrimers composed of poly(amidoamine) groups to which we coupled several specific antibodies, to investigate potential formats based on radial partition immunoassay. The coupled antibodies have retained their stability and immunological binding after coupling, both in solution and when immobilized onto a solid support. On the basis of our feasibility studies with model systems, we conclude that immunoassays can be developed with performance equivalent to or better than that in many established systems. By application of a mixture of the dendrimer-coupled antibody and the analyte of interest to the solid phase, we have investigated the performance characteristics of solution-phase immunoassays. Our experiments demonstrate enhanced sensitivity for creatine kinase MB isoenzyme (CKMB), thyrotropin, and myoglobin assays and reduced instrumental analysis time for the CKMB assay.