Electrochemical immunosensor for the diagnosis of celiac disease

Abstract

A novel electrochemical immunosensing strategy for the detection of antibodies to tissue transglutaminase (tTG) in human serum is presented. The proposed immunosensor consists of the immobilization by physical adsorption of tTG from guinea pig liver on graphite-epoxy composite (GEC) electrodes. After the reaction with the human serum (containing the specific antibodies in the case of celiac disease), the electrode was incubated with different kinds of secondary labeled antibodies, namely, horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated goat antibodies to human whole immunoglobulins (Igs), to human IgG, and finally to human IgA. Among the different classes of antibodies in human serum toward tTG, the best results were achieved when anti-tTG IgA antibodies were investigated. In total, 10 positive and 10 negative serum samples were processed, obtaining a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 100% compared with the commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method performed in a hospital laboratory. This strategy offers great promise for a simple, cost-effective, and user-friendly analytical method that allows point-of-care diagnosis of celiac disease. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.