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Lee, Hur, Chua, Kuo, Song, and Cha: Detection of Serum IgE Specific to Mite Allergens by Immuno-PCR
Original Article

Immune Network 2008; 8(3): 82-89.

Published online: 30 September 2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4110/in.2008.8.3.82

Detection of Serum IgE Specific to Mite Allergens by Immuno-PCR

Kyung-woo Lee1, Byung-ung Hur1, Kaw-yan Chua2, 3, I-chun Kuo4, Suk-yoon Song1, Sang-hoon Cha1, 5, 6

1Division of Molecular and Medical Biotechnology, College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Korea.

2Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

3Member of Immunology Programme, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

4Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore.

5Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Korea.

6IG Therapy Co., Rm 112, Nong 3rd Building, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Korea.

Corresponding Author. Tel: 82-33-250-6485; Fax: 82-33-253-6485; chash@kangwon.ac.kr

Received 12 August 2008       Revised 22 August 2008       Accepted 29 August 2008

Copyright © 2008 The Korean Association of Immunologists

(open-access):

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

Although a skin test is the primary option for detecting allergen-specific IgE in clinics, the serum IgE immunoassay is also important because it allows for the diagnosis of allergy without any accompanying adverse effect on the patient. However, the low detection limit of IgE levels by immunoassay may restrict the use of the method in some occasions, and improving its sensitivity would thus have a significant implication in allergy-immunology clinics.

Methods

In this study, we attempted to detect specific serum IgE by using immuno-polymerase chain reaction (IPCR) which combines the antigen-antibody specificity of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) with the amplification power of PCR.

Results

Our results demonstrated that Blo t5-specific serum IgE can be detected by IPCR with a 100-fold higher sensitivity than ELISA, and cross-reactivity of serum IgE to other mite allergens is able to be analyzed by using only 0.3 µl of serum sample. Use of real-time IPCR seemed to permit more convenient determination of specific serum IgE as well.

Conclusion

We believe that IPCR can serve as a valuable tool in determining specific serum IgE, especially when the amount of serum sample is limited.

Keywords: Blo t 5, Der p 1, Der p 2, IgE, allergy, immuno-PCR, real-time PCR

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