Novel Liposome Immunoassay for Detection of Ultratrace Amount of Bioactive Substances : an Assay for Insulin

The immunoassay method is frequently used for the identification and quantitation of ultratrace amount of bioactive substances. Homogeneous liposome immunoassays, which can avoid the use of radioisotopes and separation steps, have recently been reported in many publications. Cytolysin-mediated liposome immunoassay using melittin ever been studied but showed limited applications. Here, we designed a homogeneous liposome immunoassay using Clostridium perfringens phospholipase C (PLC), an enzyme which catalyzes the hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine in biological membranes, as a cytolysin.