Employment of 4-(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)phenol as a signal enhancer of the chemiluminescent luminol-H2O2-horseradish peroxidase reaction for detection of hepatitis C virus in real samples

Highly sensitive detection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in serum is a key method for diagnosing and classifying the extent of HCV infection. In this study, a p-phenol derivative, 4-(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)phenol (4-TRP), was employed as an efficient enhancer of the luminol-hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-horseradish peroxidase (HRP) chemiluminescence (CL) system for detection of HCV. Compared with a traditional enhancer, 4-TRP strongly enhanced CL intensity with the effect of prolonging and stabilizing light emission. The developed CL system was applied to detecting HCV core antigen (HCV-cAg) using a sandwich structure inside microwells. Our experimental results showed that there was good linear relationship between CL intensity and HCV-cAg concentration in the 0.6-3.6 pg/mL range (R = 0.99). The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were 4.5-5.8% and 5.0-7.3%, respectively. In addition, sensitive determination of HCV-cAg in serum samples using the luminol-H2O2-HRP-4-TRP CL system was also feasible in clinical settings.