JPH068823B2 - Method for moving spherical carrier for antigen-antibody reaction - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for moving a spherical carrier for antigen-antibody reaction, and more particularly to a method applied to the operation of an automated clinical laboratory test apparatus, which comprises , Sometimes referred to as beads) to carry out antigen antibody using heterogeneous EIA (enzyme immunoassay), RIA (radioimmunoassay)
In a measuring operation such as the above, the present invention relates to a method for taking out the beads from a container containing the beads and transferring them to another container reliably and without causing contamination by a washing liquid or the like.

[Prior Art] In EIA, RIA, etc. using an antigen-antibody reaction,
Measurement operations of samples and standard substance solutions are performed using spherical carriers such as glass beads and plastic beads. In order to achieve such automation of the measurement operation, it is necessary to transfer the beads from a container such as a test tube (hereinafter simply referred to as a container) to another container reliably and without causing contamination by a cleaning liquid or the like. . As a conventional method for moving beads from a container containing beads to another container, the beads are suctioned with a negative pressure by a suction nozzle to be adsorbed, and after being placed on another container, the inside of the suction nozzle is kept at normal pressure. It is the same as the above method until it is returned and the beads are naturally dropped into the other container, and the beads are sucked with a negative pressure by a suction nozzle to be adsorbed and placed on another container. A method of forcibly dropping the beads into the separate container by applying pressure (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 223759/1983).
Etc. have been proposed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In general, a liquid such as a cleaning liquid coexists in a container containing beads. Due to the coexistence of the cleaning liquid and the like, the following two conventional techniques show the following. Such problems are pointed out.

According to the method shown at the beginning, since the beads are relatively lightweight, it is difficult to release the adsorption state of the beads to the suction nozzle due to the surface tension of the cleaning liquid or the like adhering to the surface, and the movement to the predetermined container cannot be reliably achieved. Sometimes (the method was developed for that). Also, when the pressure of the suction nozzle is returned to normal pressure, the cleaning liquid and the like in the suction nozzle will drop together with the beads into another container, causing contamination in another container and adversely affecting the measurement results. there is a possibility.

Since the method shown on the one side is a method of forcibly dropping it by positive pressure, there is an advantage that the adverse effect due to the surface tension of the cleaning liquid as shown in can be eliminated, but there is no residual liquid in the suction nozzle. If a positive pressure is applied before it is stored, the residual liquid will be blown into the container at once, and the adverse effect due to the contamination described in will become more remarkable. Therefore, the method requires an operation to completely remove the residual liquid in the suction nozzle every time the beads are transferred to another container, and is applied to a clinical test automation device in consideration of the time loss and the like. Not the best option.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems of the prior art, and its purpose is to reliably carry out the contamination of beads from a container containing beads to another container by a cleaning liquid or the like. It is to provide a method of moving without occurring, which is an optimum method to be applied to a clinical laboratory automation device.

[Means for Solving Problems] According to the present invention capable of achieving the above object, a liquid is obtained by inserting a suction nozzle acting by negative pressure into a container in which a spherical carrier for antigen-antibody reaction coexists in the liquid. In the method of discharging, the spherical carrier is adsorbed to the tip of the suction nozzle and taken out of the container, the nozzle is positioned on another container, and then the spherical carrier is transferred into the other container. A method for moving a spherical carrier for an antigen-antibody reaction, characterized in that the carrier is housed in the container by applying the carrier to the upper end of the inner wall of the other container while keeping the negative pressure state in the nozzle, and removing the carrier. Is.

[Operation] Although the present invention is configured as described above, the point is that beads are transferred by adopting a configuration in which beads are applied to the upper end of the inner wall of the container and blown off while maintaining the negative pressure state in the suction nozzle. The amount of cleaning liquid and the like mixed into another container to be replaced has been greatly reduced.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples, but the following Examples are not of a nature limiting the present invention.
Any modification of the design in view of the gist of the later description is included in the technical scope of the present invention.

[Embodiment] FIGS. 1 and 2 are schematic explanatory views for explaining a series of steps of the method of the present invention, in which 1 is a negative pressure source, 2 is a suction nozzle, and 3 is a negative pressure source 1. A flexible tube for connecting with the suction nozzle 2, 4 is a container first containing beads, 5 is another container to which beads are to be transferred, 6 is beads, and 7 is a washing liquid.

FIG. 1 shows a procedure until the beads 6 stored in the container 4 coexisting with the cleaning liquid 7 are taken out of the container by the suction nozzle 2, and FIG. 2 shows the beads 6 in another container 5. It shows the procedure until it is paid off.

First, the suction nozzle 2 is positioned above the container 4 in which the beads 6 and the cleaning liquid 7 coexist, and the negative pressure source 1 is placed inside the suction nozzle 2.
A negative pressure state is obtained by [Fig. 1 (1)]. Next, the suction nozzle 2 is inserted into the container 4, and when most of the cleaning liquid 7 is discharged through the suction nozzle 2 and the flexible tube 3 and appears on the liquid surface at the upper end portion of the bead 6 (the specific gravity of the bead is It is assumed that the specific gravity of the cleaning liquid 7 or the like is larger than the specific gravity of the cleaning liquid 7).
(2)], and then the beads 6 are taken out of the container 4 [Fig. 1 (3)].

The beads 6 thus taken out from the container 4 are moved to above the container 5 in which the beads 6 are to be housed, while being adsorbed by the suction nozzle 2, and are further inserted so as to face the upper opening of the container 5. [Fig. 2 (1)]. For this position,
As shown in FIG. 3, the spherical center 6 a of the bead 6 is located at the upper end 5 of the container 5.
It is suitable that the range is from a to the inside of the container and the tip 2a of the suction nozzle 2 does not come into contact with the upper end 5a. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 8 is an opening for sucking the cleaning liquid 7, and this point will be described later. Next, the beads 6 are applied to the upper end portion of the inner wall of the container 5, and further, as shown in FIG.
When the suction nozzle 2 is moved in the direction of the arrow A as shown in (2), the beads 6 are blown off from the tip 2a of the suction nozzle 2 and the beads 6 can be forcibly removed and stored in the container 5. [Fig. 2 (3)]. Further, since the negative pressure state is maintained in the suction nozzle 2 even at this time, even if a residual liquid (cleaning liquid 7) is present in the suction nozzle 2, the residual liquid accompanies the beads 6 or The beads 6 are prevented from dropping after being separated from the suction nozzle 2 and mixed in the container 5, and there is no problem of contamination.

In the procedure shown in FIG. 1 (1) to FIG. 1 (2), it is assumed that the specific gravity of the beads 6 is larger than the specific gravity of the cleaning liquid 7, and therefore the beads 6 are near the bottom of the container 4. Since the suction nozzle 2 is located at the position, the suction nozzle 2 is inserted and advanced in the direction in which the beads 6 are attached while sucking the cleaning liquid 7, but when the specific gravity of the beads 6 is smaller than that of the cleaning liquid 7, the cleaning liquid 7 is sucked. The tip 2 of the suction nozzle 2 before being discharged
The beads 6 are adsorbed on a. However, it is advantageous to discharge the cleaning liquid 7 in the container 4 in advance as much as possible in order to minimize the adhesion of the cleaning liquid 7 to the surface of the beads 6 when the beads 6 are taken out of the container 4,
In consideration of this point, the present inventors have devised a structure of the suction nozzle 2 which can effectively carry out the method of the present invention even when beads having a small specific gravity are used. That is, as shown in FIG. 3 and as shown in FIGS. 4 (1) to 4 (3),
When an opening 8 (cleaning liquid suction port) different from the opening for adsorbing the beads 6 is provided near the tip 2a of each of the various suction nozzles 2, the beads 8 are adsorbed by the tip 2a of the suction nozzle 2 by this opening 8. Even after that, the cleaning liquid 7 in the container 4 can be sucked and discharged. As a result, when the beads 6 are taken out from the container 4, it is possible to reduce the adhesion of the cleaning liquid 7 to the surface of the beads 6 as much as possible. Needless to say, the structure provided with the openings 8 can be applied to the case where the beads 6 having a large specific gravity are adsorbed.

Although the configurations shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 above are the most basic ones for carrying out the present invention, the method of the present invention is not limited to them and, for example, as shown in FIG. Configurations can also be employed.

FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory view showing an example of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention, for example, a clinical test automation apparatus, for example, an apparatus applied to an automated system of heterogeneous EIA by a solid phase method for beads, A plurality of (five in this embodiment) suction nozzles 2 are installed in a header 9 provided with a negative pressure chamber,
The beads 6 are moved from the container 4 to the container and from the container 5 to the container 10. The number of suction nozzles 2 is set to an optimum number in consideration of the processing capacity of the system.

In the apparatus shown in FIG. 5, it may be achieved by both a mechanism for moving the header 9 vertically and horizontally and a mechanism for moving the table on which the containers 4, 5, 10 etc. are installed back and forth, or either one. It may be achieved by constructing a necessary mechanism, and there is no restriction on these configurations, and there is no limitation as long as a relative positional relationship can be obtained.

[Advantages of the Invention] As described above, according to the method of the present invention, by adopting the configuration described above, the beads can be reliably transferred from the container containing the beads to another container without causing contamination by the cleaning liquid or the like. Being able to move, this method is the optimal method to be applied to the clinical laboratory automation device.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 (1) to (3) and 2 (1) to (3) are schematic explanatory views for explaining a series of steps of the method of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a top view of beads 6 on the inner wall of the container 5. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the positional relationship between the two when they are applied to a portion to remove them, FIGS. 4 (1) to 4 (3) are sectional views showing various structures of the suction nozzle 2, and FIG. 5 is a diagram for carrying out the method of the present invention. It is a schematic explanatory drawing which shows an example of an apparatus. 1 ... Negative pressure source 2 ... Suction nozzle 3 ... Flexible tube 4,5,10 ... Container 6 ... Beads (spherical carrier) 7 ... Cleaning liquid 8 ... Opening part (cleaning liquid suction port) 9 ... Header

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A container in which a spherical carrier for antigen-antibody reaction coexists in a liquid, a suction nozzle acting by negative pressure is inserted to discharge the liquid, and the spherical carrier is adsorbed to the tip of the suction nozzle to outside the container. In the method of transferring the spherical carrier into another container after unloading it to another container and positioning the nozzle on the other container, the inner wall of the other container while maintaining a negative pressure state in the suction nozzle. A method for moving a spherical carrier for antigen-antibody reaction, which comprises storing the carrier in the container by applying the carrier to the upper end and removing the carrier.