International Journal of Analytical Chemistry
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 341260, 8 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/341260
Research Article

Low-Level Detection of Poly(amidoamine) PAMAM Dendrimers Using Immunoimaging Scanning Probe Microscopy

Chevelle A. Cason,1 Thomas A. Fabré,1 Andrew Buhrlage,1 Kristi L. Haik,2 and Heather A. Bullen1

1Department of Chemistry, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY 41099, USA
2Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY 41099, USA

Received 29 September 2011; Accepted 3 November 2011

Academic Editor: Charles L. Wilkins

Copyright © 2012 Chevelle A. Cason et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Immunoimaging scanning probe microscopy was utilized for the low-level detection and quantification of biotinylated G4 poly(amidoamine) PAMAM dendrimers. Results were compared to those of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and found to provide a vastly improved analytical method for the low-level detection of dendrimers, improving the limit of detection by a factor of 1000 ( L O D = 2 . 5 × 1 0 − 1 3  moles). The biorecognition method is reproducible and shows high specificity and good accuracy. In addition, the capture assay platform shows a promising approach to patterning dendrimers for nanotechnology applications.