Preparation and Application of Time-Resolved Fluorescent Nanospheres (TRFNs) for Immunochromatography of Ferritin

Abstract

Time-resolved fluorescent nanospheres (TRFNs) are polymer nanospheres with special functional groups on the surface loaded with rare earth complexes which emit fluorescence when irradiated by ultraviolet light. TRFNs offer spherical morphology, homogeneity, good dispersity, large specific surface area, easy chemical modification, high loading capacity and good biocompatibility. The rare earth complexes possess unique properties that render them highly sensitive and capable of effectively excluding unspecific fluorescence. Hence, they constitute an excellent labeling material for the time-resolved fluorescence immunochromatographic assay (TRFIA). The developed method has a linear response to ferritin from 6 to 1000 ng/mL with a detection limit of 3.5 ng/mL, good reproducibility, and good accuracy compared with commercial chemiluminescence measurements of serum. These results suggest that the reported TRFN has utility for time-resolved fluorescence immunochromatographic assays.

Keywords:

• Ferritin
• rare earth complex
• time-resolved fluorescence immunochromatographic assay (TRFIA), serum analysis
• time-resolved fluorescence nanospheres (TRFNs)

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Epsilon Biotechnology (Zhejiang, China), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21402889), 131 innovative Talents Training Project in Tianjin, Scientific Research and Development Center of Higher Education Ministry of Education of China “Innovative Application of Virtual Simulation Technology in Vocational Education Teaching” special project: “Research on the construction path and effect of Virtual simulation training Base for Health vocational Education” (Grant No. ZJXF2022094), and Tianjin Municipal Association of Higher Vocational and Technical Education National Natural Science Foundation of China (2024-H-038).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Compliance with ethical standards

The analysis of serum was approved by the Ethics Committee, Tianjin Medical College, Tianjin, China.