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ELISA

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For other uses, see Elisa (disambiguation).

The Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay, or ELISA, is a biochemical technique used mainly in immunology to detect the presence of an antibody or an antigen in a sample. The ELISA has been used as a diagnostic tool in medicine and plant pathology, as well as a quality control check in various industries. Performing an ELISA involves at least one antibody with specificity for a particular antigen. The sample with an unknown amount of antigen is immobilized on a solid support (usually a polystyrene microtiter plate) either non-specifically (via adsorption to the surface) or specifically (via capture by another antibody specific to the same antigen, in a "sandwich" ELISA). After the antigen is immobilized the detection antibody is added, forming a complex with the antigen. The detection antibody can be covalently linked to an enzyme, or can itself be detected by a secondary antibody which is linked to an enzyme through bioconjugation. Between each step the plate is typically washed with a mild detergent solution to remove any proteins or antibodies that are not specifically bound. After the final wash step the plate is developed by adding an enzymatic substrate to produce a visible signal, which indicates the quantity of antigen in the sample. Older ELISAs utilize chromogenic substrates, though newer assays employ fluorogenic substrates with much higher sensitivity. In simple terms, an unknown amount of antigen in a sample is immobilized on a surface. One then washes a particular antibody over the surface. This antibody is linked to an enzyme that visibly reacts when activated, say by light hitting it in the case of a fluorescent enzyme; the brightness of the fluorescence would then tell you how much antigen is in your sample.

The Enzyme ImmunoAssay (EIA) is a synonym for the ELISA.

Applications

Because the ELISA can be performed to evaluate either the presence of antigen or the presence of antibody in a sample, it is a useful tool both for determining serum antibody concentrations (such as with the HIV test[1] or West Nile Virus) and also for detecting the presence of antigen. It has also found applications in the food industry in detecting potential food allergens such as milk, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, and eggs.[2]

History

Prior to the development of the EIA/ELISA, immunoassays were conducted using radioactively-labeled antigens or antibodies in a technique called radioimmunoassay. The radioactivity provides the signal which indicates whether a specific antigen or antibody is present in the sample. Radioimmunoassay was first described in a paper by Rosalyn Sussman Yalow and Solomon Berson published in 1960[3].

Because radioactivity poses a health threat, a safer alternative was sought. A suitable alternative to radioimmunoassay would substitute a non-radioactive signal in place of the radioactive signal. When certain enzymes (such as peroxidase) react with appropriate substrates (such as ABTS or 3,3’,5,5’-Tetramethylbenzidine), they can result in changes in color, which can be used as a signal. However, the signal has to be associated with the presence of antibody or antigen, which is why the enzyme has to be linked to an appropriate antibody. This linking process was independently developed by Stratis Avrameas and G.B. Pierce[4]. Since it is necessary to remove any unbound antibody or antigen by washing, the antibody or antigen has to be fixed to the surface of the container, i.e. the immunosorbent has to be prepared. A technique to accomplish this was published by Wide and Porath in 1966[5]

In 1971, Peter Perlmann and Eva Engvall at Stockholm University in Sweden, as well as Anton Schuurs and Bauke van Weemen in The Netherlands, independently published papers which synthesized this knowledge into methods to perform EIA/ELISA[6][7]

Methods

The steps of the general, "indirect," ELISA for determining serum antibody concentrations are:

  1. Apply a sample of known antigen to a surface, often the well of a microtiter plate. The antigen is fixed to the surface to render it immobile. Simple adsorption of the protein to the plastic surface is usually sufficient. These samples of known antigen concentrations will constitute a standard curve used to calculate antigen concentrations of unknown samples. Note that the antigen itself may be an antibody.
  2. The plate wells or other surface are then coated with serum samples of unknown antigen concentration, diluted into the same buffer used for the antigen standards. Since antigen immobilization in this step is due to non-specific adsorption, it is important for the total protein concentration to be similar to that of the antigen standards.
  3. A concentrated solution of non-interacting protein, such as Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) or casein, is added to all plate wells. This step is known as blocking, because the serum proteins block non-specific adsorption of other proteins to the plate.
  4. The plate is washed, and a detection antibody specific to the antigen of interest is applied to all plate wells. This antibody will only bind to immobilized antigen on the well surface, not to other serum proteins or the blocking proteins.
  5. The plate is washed to remove any unbound detection antibody. After this wash, only the antibody-antigen complexes remain attached to the well.
  6. Secondary antibodies, which will bind to any remaining detection antibodies, are added to the wells. These secondary antibodies are conjugated to the substrate-specific enzyme. This step may be skipped if the detection antibody is conjugated to an enzyme.
  7. Wash the plate, so that excess unbound enzyme-antibody conjugates are removed.
  8. Apply a substrate which is converted by the enzyme to elicit a chromogenic or fluorogenic or electrochemical signal.
  9. View/quantify the result using a spectrophotometer, spectrofluorometer, or other optical/electrochemical device.

The enzyme acts as an amplifier; even if only few enzyme-linked antibodies remain bound, the enzyme molecules will produce many signal molecules. A major disadvantage of the indirect ELISA is that the method of antigen immobilization is non-specific; any proteins in the sample will stick to the microtiter plate well, so small concentrations of analyte in serum must compete with other serum proteins when binding to the well surface. The sandwich ELISA provides a solution to this problem.

ELISA may be run in a qualitative or quantitative format. Qualitative results provide a simple positive or negative result for a sample. The cutoff between positive and negative is determined by the analyst and may be statistical. Two or three times the standard deviation is often used to distinguish positive and negative samples. In quantitative ELISA, the optical density or fluorescent units of the sample is interpolated into a standard curve, which is typically a serial dilution of the target.

Sandwich ELISA

A sandwich ELISA. (1) Plate is coated with a capture antibody; (2) sample is added, and any antigen present binds to capture antibody; (3) detecting antibody is added, and binds to antigen; (4) enzyme-linked secondary antibody is added, and binds to detecting antibody; (5) substrate is added, and is converted by enzyme to detectable form.

A less-common variant of this technique, called "sandwich" ELISA, is used to detect sample antigen. The steps are as follows:

  1. Prepare a surface to which a known quantity of capture antibody is bound.
  2. Block any non specific binding sites on the surface.
  3. Apply the antigen-containing sample to the plate.
  4. Wash the plate, so that unbound antigen is removed.
  5. Apply enzyme-linked secondary antibodies which are specific to the antigen.
  6. Wash the plate, so that the unbound antibody-enzyme conjugates are removed.
  7. Apply a chemical which is converted by the enzyme into a color or fluorescent or electrochemical signal.
  8. Measure the absorbance or fluorescence or electrochemical signal (e.g., current) of the plate wells to determine the presence and quantity of antigen.

The image to the right includes the use of a secondary antibody conjugated to an enzyme, though technically this is not necessary if the detection antibody is conjugated to an enzyme. However, use of a secondary-antibody conjugate avoids the expensive process of creating enzyme-linked antibodies for every antigen one might want to detect. By using an enzyme-linked antibody that binds the Fc region of other antibodies, this same enzyme-linked antibody can be used in a variety of situations. The major advantage of a sandwich ELISA is the ability to use crude or impure samples and still selectively bind any antigen that may be present. Without the first layer of "capture" antibody, any proteins in the sample (including serum proteins) may competitively adsorb to the plate surface, lowering the quantity of antigen immobilized.

Competitive ELISA

A third use of ELISA is through competitive binding. The steps for this ELISA are somewhat different than the first two examples:

  1. Unlabeled antibody is incubated in the presence of its antigen.
  2. These bound antibody/antigen complexes are then added to an antigen coated well.
  3. The plate is washed, so that unbound antibody is removed. (The more antigen in the sample, the less antibody will be able to bind to the antigen in the well, hence "competition.")
  4. The secondary antibody, specific to the primary antibody is added. This second antibody is coupled to the enzyme.
  5. A substrate is added, and remaining enzymes elicit a chromogenic or fluorescent signal.

For competitive ELISA, the higher the original antigen concentration, the weaker the eventual signal.

See also

References

  1. ^ MedLinePlus. "HIV ELISA/western blot." U.S. National Library of Medicine. Last accessed April 16, 2007. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003538.htm
  2. ^ U. S. Food and Drug Administration. "Food Allergen Partnership." Last accessed April 16, 2007. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/alrgpart.html
  3. ^ YALOW R, BERSON S (1960). "Immunoassay of endogenous plasma insulin in man". J. Clin. Invest. 39: 1157–75. PMID 13846364.
  4. ^ Lequin R (2005). "Enzyme immunoassay (EIA)/enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)". Clin. Chem. 51 (12): 2415–8. PMID 16179424.
  5. ^ Wide L, Porath J. Radioimmunoassay of proteins with the use of Sephadex-coupled antibodies. Biochem Biophys Acta 1966;30:257-260.
  6. ^ Engvall E, Perlman P (1971). "Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Quantitative assay of immunoglobulin G". Immunochemistry. 8 (9): 871–4. PMID 5135623.
  7. ^ Van Weemen BK, Schuurs AH (1971). "Immunoassay using antigen-enzyme conjugates". FEBS Letters. 15 (3): 232–6. PMID 11945853.
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