A diagnostic test kit for detecting the presence or quantity of an enzyme
or enzyme inhibitor is provided. The diagnostic kit utilizes reactive
complexes to facilitate the detection of the enzyme or enzyme inhibitor.
The reactive complexes include a substrate joined (e.g., covalently
bonded, physically adsorbed, etc.) to a reporter and magnetic substance.
In one embodiment, for example, a peptide, protein, or glycoprotein
substrate is joined to a reporter (e.g., dyed latex particle) and
magnetic particle. In this embodiment, the substrate provides a cleavage
target for a proteolytic enzyme. Specifically, upon contacting the
reactive complexes, the proteolytic enzyme cleaves the substrate and
releases the reporter and/or magnetic particle. The signal exhibited by
the released reporters may then be used to indicate the presence or
quantity of an enzyme or enzyme inhibitor within the test sample.