Serum amyloid A (SAA) is an acute phase protein playing an important role in initiating and regulating host immune defense. SAA can be used for evaluating disease severity for a better management of inflammatory patients. With the development of biological therapy and the demand for a new biomarker for predicting and monitoring disease activity, SAA becomes a good point-of-care (POC) model analyte and has an essential role in clinical practice.

The increasing demand for POC testing can be met using hot electron-induced electrochemiluminescence (HECL). HECL is an analytical method that utilizes electrogenerated hydrated electrons to induce the one-electron redox reactions leading to the excitation of luminophores. Aromatic Tb(III)-chelates are the most common lanthanide-chelates studied in HECL applications which can be detected down to picomolar concentrations. In this study, Tb(III)-chelates were used as electrochemiluminescent labels in SAA assays.

The novel low-cost composite electrode chips replaced older expensive oxide-coated silicon electrodes were created by screen printing technique. Composite electrodes made of insulating polyvinyl butyrate (PVB) with conductive carbon black (CB) particles were studied and compared with other electrode materials such as polystyrene and ethyl cellulose doped with carbon black.

Experimental work was carried out to develop Human Serum Amyloid A (SAA) assay, and both develop and study novel electrode type alternatives suitable for bioaffinity assays utilizing hot electron-induced electrochemiluminescence in detection stages. Measurements were carried out first with the label molecules and later using our model immunoassays of SAA and C-reactive protein.