Antibody-Directed Synthesis of Catalytic Nanoclusters for Bioanalytical Assays

Synthesis of atomic nanoclusters (NCs) using proteins as a scaffold has attracted great attention. Usually, the synthetic conditions for the synthesis of NCs stabilized with proteins require extreme pH values or temperature. These harsh reaction conditions cause the denaturation of the proteins and end up in the loss of their biological functions. Until now, there are no examples of the use of antibodies as NC stabilizers. In this work, we present the first method for the synthesis of catalytic NCs that uses antibodies for the stabilization of NCs. Anti-BSA IgG was used as a model to demonstrate that it is possible to use an antibody as a scaffold for the synthesis of semiconductor and metallic NCs with catalytic properties. The synthesis of antibodies modified with NCs is carried out under nondenaturing conditions, which do not affect the antibody structure. The resulting antibodies still maintain the affinity for target antigens and protein G. The catalytic properties of the anti-BSA IgG modified with NCs can be used to the quantification of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in a direct sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).