In the development of immunoassay systems, many performance requirements need be met. Assays need be sensitive enough to detect analyte at very low levels in the subpicogram nanogram range. Total assay time needs to be 15 minutes or less in order to provide timely results for patient management in point of care situations, or to meet throughput requirements for batch analyzers. In some cases, analyte panels where multiple assays are simultaneously performed with the same sample are advantageous in order to minimize the turnaround time for results and test costs.
Many immunoassays employ fluorescent labels because such labels offer many practical advantages. Compared to enzymes, fluorescent labels are much more stable and do not require an additional substrate reagent. For multianalyte panels, fluorescent labels enable the use of discrete binding zones within a common reaction chamber since each binding zone can be sequentially subjected to fluorescence excitation and emission measurements without interference from adjacent binding zones. Assays utilizing fluorescent labels, however, are less sensitive than enzyme based assays primarily due to the enzyme's ability to catalytically convert substrate to accumulate a great amount of product molecules over time.
Arylsulfonate cyanine fluorescent dyes are described in Mujumdar et al. (1993) Bioconjugate Chemistry, 4:105-111; Southwick et al. (1990) Cytometry, 11:418-430; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,486. Cy5 is described in each of the references and is commercially available from Biological Detection Systems, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa., under the tradename FLUOROLINK™ Cy5™. The arylsulfonate cyanine fluorescent dyes have high extinction coefficients (typically from 130,000 L/mole to 250,000 L/mole), good quantum yields, fluorescent emission spectra in a range (500 nm to 750 nm) outside of the autofluorescence wavelengths of most biological materials and plastics, good solubilities, and low non-specific binding characteristics.
Despite these excellent properties, arylsulfonate cyanine fluorescent dyes suffer from certain limitations. In particular, these dyes have a relatively narrow Stokes shift which results in significant overlap between the excitation and emission spectra of the dye. The overlap of excitation and emission spectra, in turn, can cause self-quenching of the fluorescence when the dye molecules are located close to each other when excited. Such self-quenching limits the number of arylsulfonate dye molecules which can be conjugated to a single antibody molecule for use in immunoassays. In the case of Cy5, an exemplary arylsulfonate cyanine fluorescent dye, the Stokes shift is 17 nm (which is the difference between an excitation wavelength of 650 nm and an emission wavelength of 667 nm). Optimal fluorescent yield is obtained when from two to four Cy5 molecules are conjugated to a single antibody molecule. The fluorescent signal output drops rapidly when more than four dye molecules are conjugated to a single antibody molecule. The inability to conjugate more than four dye molecules to individual antibody molecules significantly limits the sensitivity of immunoassays using Cy5-labelled antibodies and other binding substances.
There is a need for an improved optical detection system and an improved method for detecting analytes with high sensitivity by fluorescent immunoassay. The system and method should be easy to handle by the users and provide high specific signal and minimal background noise.