A highly sensitive assay for protein with dibromochloro-arsenazo-Al3+ using resonance light scattering technique and its application

A simple, sensitive and selective method has been developed for the determination of protein using resonance light scattering (RLS) technique. The method is based on the interaction of protein and arsenazo-DBC-Al3+ in the pH range of 5.0–7.0, which causes a substantial enhancement of the resonance scattering signal of arsenazo-DBC-Al3+ in the wavelength range of 300–550 nm with the maximum RLS platform at 405–420 nm. With this method, 2.50–50.00 μg ml−1 of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and 2.50–60.00 μg ml−1 of human serum albumin (HSA) can be determined, and the detection limits, calculated three times the standard deviation (S.D.) of six blank measurements, for BSA and HSA were 123.4 and 89.6 ng ml−1, respectively. Moreover, the method is free from interference from many amino acids and metal ions. The method, with high sensitivity, selectivity and reproducibility, was satisfactorily applied to the determination of total protein in human serum samples. Mechanism studies indicated that arsenazo-DBC-Al3+ could bind to BSA depending mainly on electrostatic forces, which results in enhanced RLS in the arsenazo-DBC-Al3+–protein system.