Auto-antibody profiling with over 9,500 human expressed proteins (TECH1P.853)

Autoantibody profiling is a powerful method to probe the immune system for early signs of disease. However, progress has been limited by the availability of suitable antigens and high-throughput tools for screening large numbers of samples. Most antigens available have been produced in bacterial or insect cells and thus may not be optimal for autoantibody profiling. Although protein microarrays have been widely used to identify common autoantibodies in many diseases, creating smaller panels of antigens for larger screening studies has been difficult and costly. We have developed rapid methods for coupling proteins to Luminex beads allowing us to create and validate focused beads arrays in just a few days using native human proteins that have been expressed and purified in HEK293 cells. We have also developed a variable-stringency assay system that allows the user to optimize the detection specificity according to their particular application. Internal and external controls validate the presence of each protein and the IgG from the patient sample. Bead arrays for classic autoimmune antigens, as well as human breast, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic and lung cancer antigens have been prepared and custom arrays can be prepared from any of OriGene’s over 9500 purified proteins. Preliminary results with serum samples from traditional autoimmune patients, breast cancer, and Type II Diabetes support the utility of the approach.