Patent ID: 7906293

Claim:
A method of detecting an analyte in a test sample, the method comprising the steps of: (a) contacting the test sample containing the analyte with a specific binding partner to form an analyte specific binding partner complex; (b) separating the analyte specific binding partner complex from the test sample to form an analyte specific binding partner complex sample; (c) adding at least one analyte-specific enzyme to the analyte specific binding partner complex sample to produce peroxide; (d) adding an acridinium-9-carboxylate aryl ester to the analyte specific binding partner complex sample, the acridinium-9-carboxylate aryl ester having a formula of: wherein R 1 is an alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, arylalkyl, aryl, sulfoalkyl or carboxyalkyl and R 2 through R 8 are each independently selected from the group consisting of: hydrogen, alkyl, amino, alkoxy, hydroxyl, carboxyl, halide, nitro, cyano, —SO 3 , —NHC(O)R, —C(O)R, —C(O)OR, —C(O)NHR and —SCN, wherein R is an alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, arylalkyl, aryl, sulfoalkyl or carboxyalkyl; and X is an anion; (e) adding a basic solution to the analyte specific binding partner complex sample to generate a light signal, wherein the light signal is generated in a basic solution with a pH greater than or equal to 10; and (f) quantifying the amount of analyte in the analyte specific binding partner complex sample by relating the amount of light generated in the test sample by comparison to a standard curve for said analyte.