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Methods employing hydrogel-based microarrays (biochips) allow the simultaneous monitoring of protein interactions with different antibodies immobilized in gel elements. The method was applied for the simultaneous differential quantification of two highly homologous antigens of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) SCCA1 and SCCA2 in a single analysis. Two panels of monoclonal antibodies against recombinant SCCA1 and SCCA2 were generated, and two antibodies, C5 (anti-SCCA1) and A11 (anti-SCCA2), were selected for further evaluation based on their ability to specifically interact with their cognate antigens. Using a sandwich analysis, these antibodies were further tested in combination with anti-SCCA antibodies (H31 and SCC107) recognizing both of the SCCA antigens, thus allowing a quantitative independent measurement of both antigens. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation for all resultant tests did not exceed 10% for the range of SCCA concentrations tested and were independent of whether SCCA1 and SCCA2 concentrations were determined simultaneously. The lower limit of detection (LOD) was estimated as 0.006 ng ml−1 for SCCA1 and 0.011 ng ml−1 for SCCA2 using the SCC107-Cy5 developing antibody and 0.014 ng ml−1 and 0.01 ng ml−1 concentrations, respectively, of the H31-Cy5 developing antibody. This assay provides a simple and accurate procedure for the differential quantitation of SCCA1 and SCCA2 using a single analysis of human serum on a biochip.

A prototype of test-system for simultaneous quantitative assay of nine tumor markers in blood serum was developed. The main constituent of the test-system is OM-9 biochip containing immobilized antibodies against nine oncomarkers: α-fetoprotein (AFP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3), cancer antigen 125 (CA 125), cancer antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9), prostate-specific antigen, total (PSAtot) and free (PSAfree) forms, neuron-specific enolase (NSE). The biochip-based assay procedure for carrying out simultaneous quantitative determination of nine tumor markers in patient's blood serum: two-steps sandwich-immunoassay, was proposed. The main analytical characteristics of the method were obtained. The results permit to consider the prototype of the test-system as a promising instrument for clinical application. The test-system prototype was tested using blood serum samples of oncological patients (252 samples) and healthy donors (185 samples). Increased concentrations of one or more tumor markers above the normal level were found in 76.6% cases of oncological patients and only in 6% cases of healthy donors. For colorectal cancer patients group, application of modern statistical methods of data-processing in medical researchers, i.e. ROC-analysis and logistic regression, indicted that the simultaneous assay of nine tumor markers on biochips showed much more diagnostic significance (area under the ROC-curve (AUC) reached 0.84) than traditional assay of 2 tumor markers, CEA and CA 19-9 (AUC = 0.59). The developed biochip-based test-system can be recommended both for the estimation of people's health, e.g., for standard medical examination, and for tracking of tumoral process in postsurgical period or after specific tumor treatment.

ISSN 1607-6729, Doklady Biochemistry and Biophysics, 2009, Vol. 427, pp. 171–174. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2009.Original Russian Text © Zh.I. Zubtsova, M.A. Filippova, E.N. Savvateeva, D.A. Zubtsov, V.R. Chechetkin, E.V. Grishin, A.S. Zasedatelev, A.Yu. Rubina, 2009, published inDoklady Akademii Nauk, 2009, Vol. 427, No. 1, pp. 118–121.

Protein microchips are designed for high-throughput evaluation of the concentrations and activities of various proteins. The rapid advance in microchip technology and a wide variety of existing techniques pose the problem of unified approach to the assessment and comparison of different platforms. Here we compare the characteristics of protein microchips developed for quantitative immunoassay with those of antibodies immobilized on glass surfaces and in hemispherical gel pads. Spotting concentrations of antibodies used for manufacturing of microchips of both types and concentrations of antigen in analyte solution were identical. We compared the efficiency of antibody immobilization, the intensity of fluorescence signals for both direct and sandwich-type immunoassays, and the reaction-diffusion kinetics of the formation of antibody-antigen complexes for surface and gel-based microchips. Our results demonstrate higher capacity and sensitivity for the hydrogel-based protein microchips, while fluorescence saturation kinetics for the two types of microarrays was comparable.

Three-dimensional gel-based biological microchips were developed for simultaneous quantitation of total (PSAtot) and free (PSAfree) forms of the prostate-specific antigen in human serum in the “one patient, one biochip” format. A method not demanding construction of calibration curves prior to the assay was applied to quantitation of PSAtot and PSAfree. In addition to gel elements with immobilized antibodies against PSAtot and PSAfree, the biochip contains elements with immobilized PSA at different concentrations, forming an internal calibration curve. Data are processed and interpreted with the special-purpose ImaGelAssay program. The sensitivity of the assay is 0.3 ng/ml for PSAtot and 0.2 ng/ml for PSAfree. The variation coefficient for measurements with one biochip series does not exceed 10%. The correlation coefficients between the estimates obtained for human sera by the biochip assay and by conventional ELISA were 0.988 for PSAtot and 0.987 for PSAfree.

The synthesis of pharmacologically active 2′-deoxynucleoside analogs, namely 2′,3′-dideoxythymidine (I) and 2′,3′-dideoxy-3′-fluorothymidine (II), is described. The proposed approach consists in condensation of the corresponding thioglycosides with silylated thymine using N-bromosuccinimide as a promoter. In the case of compound II, it is shown that the yield and stereoselectivity of this process depend on the equivalent ratio of silylated base and solvent.

Correction for ‘Differential quantification of SCCA1 and SCCA2 cancer antigens using a hydrogel biochip’ by Aleksei A. Tikhonov et al., Anal. Methods, 2016, DOI: 10.1039/c6ay02216b.

Manufacturing of hydrogel-based microchips on metal-coated substrates significantly enhances fluorescent signals upon binding of labeled target molecules. This observation holds true for both oligonucleotide and protein microchips. When Cy5 is used as fluorophore, this enhancement is 8–10-fold in hemispherical gel elements and 4–5-fold in flattened gel pads, as compared with similar microchips manufactured on uncoated glass slides. The effect also depends on the hydrophobicity of metal-coated substrate and on the presence of a layer of liquid over the gel pads. The extent of enhancement is insensitive to the nature of formed complexes and immobilized probes and remains linear within a wide range of fluorescence intensities. Manufacturing of gel-based protein microarrays on metal-coated substrates improves their sensitivity using the same incubation time for immunoassay. Sandwich immunoassay using these microchips allows shortening the incubation time without loss of sensitivity. Unlike microchips with probes immobilized directly on a surface, for which the plasmon mechanism is considered responsible for metal-enhanced fluorescence, the enhancement effect observed using hydrogel-based microchips on metal-coated substrates might be explained within the framework of geometric optics.