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Chemiluminescence

Do you know why fireflies and jellyfish glow in the dark? The answer is a simple chemical reaction that generates light. The production of light from a chemical reaction is known as chemiluminescence. In general, when two molecules react, they may form an intermediate compound, which then breaks down. During the process of breakdown of the intermediate compound, some of the energy is released as photons of light. In most chemical reactions, heat is produced but in chemiluminescence reactions, there is no heat produced, instead, the energy is released as light.

Use of horseradish peroxidase and alkaline phosphatase in chemiluminescence

Several enzymes have been utilized as detection probes in immunochemistry because of their high sensitivity, simplicity and wide usage applications. The two very common enzyme probes used in immunoassays and chemiluminescence are horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and alkaline phosphatase (AP). These two enzymes have been used to detect biological compounds through chemiluminescence, chromogenic or fluorescent outputs.