From ECL to EECL - what are the results of the enhancement?
The changes Accucise Diagnostics has made lie not only in the ECL label, but also in the coupling chemistry on the surface of magnetic beads and the electrochemistry in the measuring cell. Together, these improvements redefine the ECL with the following extra features:
■ Shorter incubation time (5 minute STAT kits will be available)
Since the magnetic separation is carried out in the ECL flow cell (the measuring cell), the ECL immunoassay does not require several minutes to complete multiple washing steps. As such, the turnaround time for one ECL assay is intrinsically much shorter (only about 20 seconds) than that of other chemiluminescence immunoassays.
The stronger emission from NRC provides the possibility of detecting the ECL signal at an earlier stage of the incubation without sacrificing measurement precision.
Combing the intrinsic characteristics of the ECL with the stronger emission of NRC, Accucise Diagnostics is able to complete an assay in 5 minutes. Such a short turnaround time is only available with Accucise-5-min. on our EECL platform.
■ Better response-dose relationship at the lower end of concentration
The ECL signal generation is an outcome of many complicated electrochemical and follow-up chemical reactions. With excellent controllability of the light-emitting process in the ECL measuring unit, Accucise is able to optimize the electrochemical condition such that the signal generation is more sensitive to the change in analyte concentration, thus improving the response-dose curve, expecially at the low concentration range.
■ Higher signal-to-noise ratio
Accucise Diagnostics has invented a method for electrochemical control of background noise, which is from dimeric 1Δg state of O2 during the oxidation of the co-reactant tri-n-propylamine. Under lowered exciting potentials, Accucise Diagnostics has obtained higher signal-to-noise ratios, while maintaining the signal at the same level as that of the usual [Ru(bpy)3]2+ based ECL.
■ Free of interference from both biotin and anti-streptavidin antibody
Unlike other ECL immunoassay systems, Accucise's EECL platform technology uses no biotin/streptavidin coupling chemistry. The absence of biotin/streptavidin fundamentally eliminates interference from both biotin and anti-streptavidin antibody.