BIOCHEMILUMINESCENCE AND BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Although used for analytical purposes for more than 40 years it is onl y recently that biochemiluminescence (BCL) has found widespread accept ance. Methods employing BCL reactions now play an important role in bi omedical research and laboratory medicine. The main attractions for th e assay technology include exquisite sensitivity (attomole-zeptomole), high selectivity, speed and simplicity. In biomedical research, the m ost important applications of BCL are: (1) to estimate microbial numbe rs and to assess cellular states (e.g., after exposure to antibiotic o r cytotoxic agents) and in reporter gene studies (firefly luciferase g ene); (2) NAD(P)H involved in redox/dehydrogenase studies using Vibrio luciferase complex; (3) BCL labels and CL detection of enzyme labels in immunoassays are the most widespread routine application for this t echnology. BCL enzyme immunoassays represent the most active area of d evelopment, e.g., enhanced BCL method for peroxidase and BCL assays fo r alkaline phosphatase labels using adamantyl 1,2-dioxetane.