Aspects of recent development of immunosensors - Electrochemical Sensors, Biosensors and Their Biomedical Applications - page 233

CHAPTER 9
Aspects of recent development of
immunosensors
Hua Wang, Guoli Shen, and Ruqin Yu
9.1 Introduction
9.1.1 General working principle of immunosensors
9.1.2 Main performance characteristics of immunosensors in clinical analysis
9.2 Immobilization of immunoactive elements
9.2.1 Non-covalent interaction-based immobilization procedures
9.2.2 Covalent interaction-based immobilization procedures
9.3 Major types of immunosensors
9.3.1 Electrochemical immunosensors
9.3.2 Optical immunosensors
9.3.3 Microgravimetric immunosensors
9.3.4 Other kinds of immunosensors
9.4 Conclusion and future trends
9.5 References
9.1 INTRODUCTION
9.1.1 General working principle of immunosensors
Immunosensors are affinity ligand-based biosensing devices that involve the
coupling of immunochemical reactions to appropriate transducers. In recent decades,
immunosensors have received rapid development and wide applications with various
detection formats [1-2]. The general working principle of the immunosensors is based
on the fact that the specifi c immunochemical recognition of antibodies (antigens)
immobilized on a transducer to antigens (antibodies) in the sample media can produce
analytical signals dynamically varying with the concentrations of analytes of interest.
Here, the highly specifi c reaction between the variable regions of an antibody and the
epitopes of an antigen involves different types of bonding, basically hydrophobic and