Dendrimer enhanced immunosensors for biological detection

Dendrimers are highly branched, tree-like polymers that possess precise size and shape, as well as surface groups. Among them, polyamidoamine dendrimers are the most widely studied, water-soluble/biocompatable dendritic macromolecules. Such dendrimers have exploited for interesting applications in immunodiagnostics, magnetic resonance imaging, gene therapy, and drug delivery. In this paper, a new signal amplification strategy using dendrimers will be introduced. While only one fluorescein group can be linked onto an antibody molecule, a large number of fluorophores can be attached to an antibody through a dendrimer linker molecule, thus forming a water-soluble fluorescein-dendrimer-antibody bioconjugate. Upon addition of the antigen, enhanced fluorescence signals are obtained when compared with the corresponding fluorescein-antibody analogs.