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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biosensors and Biomolecular Electronics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1462203
This article is part of the Research Topic Insights in Biosensors and Biomolecular Electronics 2024: Novel Developments, Current Challenges, and Future Perspectives View all 4 articles

A Streamlined Proximity Extension Assay Using POEGMA Polymer-Coated Magnetic Beads for Enhanced Protein Detection

Provisionally accepted
Jiumei Hu Jiumei Hu 1Pengfei Zhang Pengfei Zhang 2Fangchi Shao Fangchi Shao 1*Tza-Huei Wang Tza-Huei Wang 1*
  • 1 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
  • 2 Princeton University, Princeton, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The detection of protein biomarkers presenting at low concentrations in biological fluids is essential for disease diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. While magnetic beads-based solidphase immunoassays have shown promise in achieving high sensitivity for detecting lowabundance proteins, existing protocols suffer from limitations such as the cumbersome need for bead blocking and washing steps to minimize adsorption of non-specific biomolecules. These extra requirements lead to increased assay complexity and the risk of procedural errors. In this study, we present a streamlined magnetic proximity extension assay (MagPEA) using poly (oligo (ethylene glycol) methacrylate) (POEGMA)-coated beads. The polymer brush on bead surface, on the one hand, provides an effective mechanism for repelling non-specifically bound biomolecules that contribute to background signal generation without performing any bead blocking and washing steps. On the other hand, it facilitates the immobilization of capture antibodies on bead surface by simply embedding the antibodies onto the porous polymer under vacuum. Using the human inflammatory factor IL-8 as a demonstration, we show that the incorporation of POEGMA beads into MagPEA workflow significantly simplifies assay procedure while maintains high sensitivity.

    Keywords: proximity extension assay, POEGMA polymer, Magnetic beads, Highly sensitive, Streamlined

    Received: 09 Jul 2024; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hu, Zhang, Shao and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Fangchi Shao, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, United States
    Tza-Huei Wang, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.