Oriented immobilization of antibodies onto sensing platforms - A critical review

The immunosensor has been proven a versatile tool to detect various analytes, such as food contaminants, pathogenic bacteria, antibiotics and biomarkers related to cancer. To fabricate robust and reproducible immunosensors with high sensitivity, the covalent immobilization of immunoglobulins (IgGs) in a site-specific manner contributes to better performance. Instead of the random IgG orientations result from the direct yet non-selective immobilization techniques, this review for the first time introduces the advances of stepwise yet site-selective conjugation strategies to give better biosensing efficiency. Noncovalently adsorbing IgGs is the first but decisive step to interact specifically with the Fc fragment, then following covalent conjugate can fix this uniform and antigens-favorable orientation irreversibly. In this review, we first categorized this stepwise strategy into two parts based on the different noncovalent interactions, namely adhesive layer-mediated interaction onto homofunctional support and layer-free interaction onto heterofunctional support (which displays several different functionalities on its surface that are capable to interact with IgGs). Further, the influence of ligands characteristics (synthesis strategies, spacer requirements and matrices selection) on the heterofunctional support has also been discussed. Finally, conclusions and future perspectives for the real-world application of stepwise covalent conjugation are discussed. This review provides more insights into the fabrication of high-efficiency immunosensor, and special attention has been devoted to the well-orientation of full-length IgGs onto the sensing platform.

N-Vinyl pyrrolidone and undecylenic acid copolymerized on silica surface as mixed-mode stationary phases for reversed-phase and hydrophilic interaction chromatography

In this work, three new mixed-mode stationary phases were prepared, based on different ratio of N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP) copolymerized together with undecylenic acid (UA) on silica microspheres surface without silanization, which named Sil@NVPUA series. The combination of NVP and UA rendered the Sil@NVPUA suitable for reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), and shown excellent methyl, planar, isomers and ion selectivity. Five types of model analytes including eight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, six alkylbenzenes, eight nucleosides and nucleobases, seven ginsenosides and five oxazolidinones can be well separated on this stationary phase. The preparation method of NVP and UA modified silica-based stationary phase is simple, and it also provides a new idea for the design of synthetic polymers to develop mixed-mode chromatography.

Recent advances in mixed-mode chromatographic stationary phases

Mixed-mode phases have become very popular in the last decade, and the number of new mixed/multi-mode sorbents is growing fast. Unlike single-mode stationary phases, perfectly suited for the separation of the analytes possessing similar physicochemical properties, for instance reversed-phase chromatography for hydrophobic solutes, mixed-mode sorbents providing multimodal interactions can render better separation selectivity for complex mixtures of solutes differing significantly in their physicochemical characteristics. The most frequent modern mixed-mode stationary phases are di/tri-mode sorbents embracing the following interactions, hydrophobic, electrostatic (coulombic), and hydrophilic. According to their structures, it is possible to distinguish silica-based, polymer-based, hybrid, and monolithic mixed-mode stationary phases. Herewith, newly synthesized mixed-mode sorbents developed within the last two and half years are categorized, discussed, and summarized. The main attention is devoted to the description of the synthetic routes and characterization methods applied for the new stationary phases.