Patent ID: 6890727

Claim:
An assay for detecting or quantifying Aβ peptide which may be present in a candidate solution, comprising: (a) contacting the candidate solution with a solid support with a heavy metal cation immobilized thereon to capture Aβ peptide on the surface of the solid support, thereby forming a first complex which comprises solid support/heavy metal cation/Aβ peptide; (b) blocking all exposed metal binding sites remaining after Aβ capture with a blocker; (c) contacting the first complex, which has been passed through step (b), with a polyclonal antibody specific for Aβ peptide to form a second complex which comprises solid support/heavy metal cation/Aβ peptide/polyclonal antibody specific for Aβ peptide; (d) labelling the second complex to form a detectable third complex which comprises solid support/heavy metal cation/Aβ peptide peptide/polyclonal antibody specific for Aβ peptide/label; and (e) detecting the third complex, and quantifying Aβ peptide which may be present in the candidate solution.