Method for increasing the sensitivity of immunoassay system through pretreatment of urine with denaturant

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for increasing the sensitivity of an immunoassay system. In order to achieve the object, the present inventors have discovered that the sensitivity of an immunoassay system can be increased by pretreating urine and thus have completed the present invention.

1 . An immunoassay method for measuring a protein in a urine specimen, comprising pretreating the urine specimen by mixing the urine specimen with glutathione and urea, or glutathione and sodium n-dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS), and then measuring the protein in the urine specimen by performing immunoassay, thereby improving assay sensitivity for the protein. 
     
     
         2 . The immunoassay method according to  claim 1 , comprising pretreating the urine specimen by mixing the urine specimen with 0.0127 mM to 13 mM glutathione and 5 mM to 320 mM urea, or 0.0127 mM to 13 mM glutathione and 1.43 mM to 5.74 mM sodium n-dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS), and then measuring the protein in the urine specimen by performing immunoassay. 
     
     
         3 . The immunoassay method according to  claim 1 , wherein the protein is megaline.