Relative efficacy of freshly collected chicken egg white albumin as a blocking agent over BSA and Tween 20 in solid phase immunoassay

In solid phase ELISA, blocking steps are more critical for optimization of result for which various blocking agents have been tried. In the present report, we have used a straightforward simple inexpensive protocol for estimating the extent to which freshly collected chicken egg albumin can bind to the polystyrene microwell ELISA plate in comparison with BSA and Tween 20 so that it can be used as a blocking agent in the test proper. The result indicated the superiority of egg albumin which could prevent the binding of conjugated antibody to an extent of 20.63% whereas the BSA and Tween 20 could prevent binding up to 13.75% and 10.17%, respectively. Egg albumin being the least expensive than BSA and Tween 20, and easily available with non-invasive procedure, our finding may be of use to reduce the cost of ELISA, if replaced with BSA.