Improved enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using surface-adhesive antibody-oriented immobilizing biolinker: a proof-of-concept study

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) have been widely used to detect disease-related antigens in clinical and research laboratories. One of the main drawbacks of ELISA is the utilization of physical adsorption for immobilizing antibodies on a surface, causing low sensitivity, reproducibility, and precision. In this study, we applied a BC-MAP linker composed of antibody-immobilizing BC domains of protein A and surface-adhesive mussel adhesive protein (MAP) to an ELISA platform to overcome these limitations. The performance of ELISA using BC-MAP linker was compared with that of untreated ELISA. BC-MAP proteins were reproducibly coated to the surface while exposing BC domains, resulting in twofold higher sensitivity and improved reproducibility of ELISA compared to the untreated ELISA utilizing physical adsorption of antibodies. Thus, the proposed method could be successfully used in ELISA platforms to diagnose and manage diseases.