Immunoassay element

Abstract

The immunoassay element for quantitatively analyzing an antigen by determining the change in enzymatic activity of an enzyme-labelled antigen or antibody caused by an immunological reaction. The immunoassay element comprises a substrate layer containing a non-diffusible substrate which forms a diffusible material in the presence of the labelling enzyme, and a reagent layer containing a fragmenting enzyme for further fragmenting the diffusible material into a lower molecular weight product. As the non-diffusible substrate, a substrate capable of reacting solely with the labelling enzyme and incapable of reacting the fragmenting enzyme is utilized. When an endo-active glucosidase is used as the labelling enzyme, and an exo-active glucosidase is used the fragmenting enzyme in the reagent layer, the non-diffusible substrate of the substrate layer is preferred to be an endo type selectively reactive substrate, which means a substrate having a reactivity specific to endo-active glucosidase. Highly sensitive assay is realized with high accuracy and high reproducibility and good storage stability.