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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Facts About Antibody Labeling

By Tracie Knight


Antibodies are broadly used in immunoassays particularly to identify and quantify antigens. In this case, the one that detects and recognizes the antigen is termed as the primary antibody, which specifies the assay. In addition, a label is incorporated into assay by either the direct or indirect methods of detection to enhance measurability. Antibody labeling has its own protocols, with critical parameters and procedures to be applied in any instance.

Immunoassay has both direct and indirect means of recognizing an antigen. The antigen is detected directly by detaching the label by a covalent bond. It is particularly attached to the primary antibody. In this process, a single incubation with the antigen takes place which calls for a single wash step. The assay simplification reduces assay variability and in turn enhancing data quality.

During indirect detection, the covalent bond attaches the label to the secondary antibody which is itself permitted to bind with the initial primary one. The technique of binding takes place within the ammunoassay. The ammunoassy process is in twofold; the first incubation, which is followed by a wash and the ultimate incubation. The process of incubation happens with unlabelled antibody.

The direct method is quite fast as it involves only one antibody and eliminates the nonspecific binding of secondary immunoglobulin. The method however has the limitation of declining the immunoreativity of primary as a result of labeling. The signal amplification is also poor. As opposed to the direct method, the indirect method facilitates signal amplification. This emanates from the improved sensitivity as a result of multiple epitopes available in every primary antibody. It nonetheless requires more incubation and wash steps.

Buffers and additives are the key considerations when it comes to providing labels for the antibodies. Your antibody will certainly contain other substances, usually a buffer or salt, additives and other proteins. It is occasionally necessary to purify the antibody before performing the labeling reaction. The purification removes the stabilizing proteins such as BSA. It also removes the low molecule substances, including Tris buffer, acid and glycine.

The efficiency of the purification process depends on two factors, the level of purity and concentration. It calls for a reasonably pure antibody. It is important that the level of purity is more than 90 percent, although the most desired level is 95% towards 100%. The concentration should however be somewhere above 0.255 mg/ml/. The antibodies are readily available for direct labeling, but some exceptions do occur when the need to be purified first. Such are often impure.

Labels are in many different variations. Different labels have different uses and specific instances. It is therefore important to ensure that you select the most appropriate label and strategy that best suits the specific application. The specific labels include enzyme conjugates, biotin, and fluorescent probes and active sites probes.

The labeling kit to be used is, out of doubt, an important factor. The kit should be well chosen to enhance the exercise. It should be worth relying upon, convenient and complete. It should not result in the loss of material, scaling up issues and batch to batch variation. The conjugates resulting from the kit must be stable in terms of covalent bonding. When assessing the reliability and efficiency of the kit, consider the amount of antibody it consumes relative to the labels.




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