Dendrimer enhanced immunosensors for biological detection

Dendrimers are highly branched, tree-like polymers that possess precise siz e and shape, as well as surface groups. Among them, polyamidoamine dendrime rs, are the most widely studied, water-soluble/biocompatable dendritic macr omolecules. Such dendrimers have exploited for interesting applications in immunodiagnostics, magnetic resonance imaging, gene therapy, and drug deliv ery. In this paper, a new signal amplification strategy using dendrimers wi ll be introduced. While only one fluorescein group can be linked onto an an tibody molecule, a large number of fluorophores can be attached to an antib ody through a dendrimer linker molecule, thus forming a water-soluble fluor escein-dendrimer-antibody bioconjugate. Upon addition of the antigen, enhan ced fluorescence signals are obtained when compared with the corresponding fluorescein-antibody analogs. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.