Antibody high throughput

The endothelin B receptor is an example of characterization of a homogeneous, affinity purified protein (Roos et al., 1998). Significant progress has been made in the development of techniques for more high-throughput identification of phosphorlyation events. Analysis of large sets of phosphorylated proteins is facilitated by the availability of affinity purification methods such as anti-phosphotyrosine or anti-phosphoserine antibodies or metal affinity chromatography (Neubauer and Mann, 1999 Soskic et al., 1999). These methods are not specific to a particular protein but rather are used to fractionate all proteins that are phosphorylated. 

In a direct immunoassay the immobilized antibody binds to the corresponding antigen. The competitive immunoassay relies upon the competition of the analyte with a labelled analyte for antibody binding. These formats are widely used for high throughput affinity arrays. A sandwich immunoassay is based on the trapping or capture of the analyte by another antibody. In ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assays) the second antibody is conjugated with an enzyme. The bound enzyme labelled antibody is detected by its ability to break down its substrate to a colored product. 

R.M.T. de Wildt, C.R. Mundy, B.D. Gorick, and I.M. Tomlinson, Antibody arrays for high-throughput screening of antibody-antigen interactions. Nature Biotech. 18, 989—994 (2000). 

Rao et al.20 demonstrated a fluorescence polarization immunoassay for evaluating serum concentrations of tricyclic antidepressants (amitriptyline, imipramine, clomipramine, and doxepin) with respect to nonresponse, compliance, therapeutic window, and influences of age, sex, substance abuse, and toxicity. Abbott Laboratories TDx/TDxFLx Toxicology Tricyclic Assay FPIA (fluorescence polarization immunoassay) was used. This assay of 50 /uL samples contained tricyclic antidepressant antibodies raised in rabbits and fluorescein-labeled tricyclic antidepressant as a tracer. The assay was calibrated with imipramine in the range of 75 to 1000 fig/L (268 to 3571 nmol/L). Intra-assay and inter-assay coefficients of variation for internal quality control samples from the manufacturer were 4.2 and 4.7%, respectively. The limits of detection were 72,71,64, and 72 nmol/L for amitriptyline, imipramine, clomipramine, and doxepin, respectively. This high-throughput immunoassay was easy to use although amitriptyline, dosulepine, desipramine, and nortriptyline showed cross-reactivities ranging from 74 to 100%. 

Once the reagents are available, the ELISA method is fast and can be modified to accommodate high throughput. But the time to obtain the appropriate reagents must be considered. It may take considerable time to generate the appropriate antibodies by immunization, as discussed previously. Also considerable time must be allowed to develop and optimize the assays. 

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