Strategies to develop a prophylaxis for the prevention of HPA-1a immunization and fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia.

Anti-HPA-1a-antibodies are the main cause of fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (FNAIT) which may result in intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) and death among fetuses and newborns. Advances in understanding the pathogenesis of FNAIT and proof of concept for prophylaxis to prevent immunization suggest that development of hyperimmune anti-HPA-1a IgG aimed at preventing immunization against HPA-1a and FNAIT is feasible. Anti-HPA-1a IgG can be obtained either by isolating immunoglobulin from already-immunized women or by development of monoclonal anti-HPA-1a antibodies. Here we discuss recent advances that may lead to the development of a prenatal and postnatal prophylactic treatment for the prevention of HPA-1a-associated FNAIT and life-threatening FNAIT-induced complications.

Autoantibodies in cancer: prognostic biomarkers and immune activation.

The development of proteomic technologies that display a wide variety of antigenic structures has led to the identification of autoantibodies to cancer-derived tumor antigens. These autoantibodies have been detected in sera from patients with multiple cancer types, and are being evaluated as biomarkers for early cancer detection. It is not known whether these antibodies also contribute to active immune surveillance or even tumorigenicity of developing tumors. Here, we review which tumor antigen-specific antibodies are prognostic biomarkers of cancer outcome, and emerging proteomic methods for the isolation and cloning of these antibodies for potential molecular diagnostics and therapeutics.

Acoustic whole blood plasmapheresis chip for prostate specific antigen microarray diagnostics.

The generation of high quality plasma from whole blood is of major interest for many biomedical analyses and clinical diagnostic methods. However, it has proven to be a major challenge to make use of microfluidic separation devices to process fluids with high cell content, such as whole blood. Here, we report on an acoustophoresis based separation chip that prepares diagnostic plasma from whole blood linked to a clinical application. This acoustic separator has the capacity to sequentially remove enriched blood cells in multiple steps to yield high quality plasma of low cellular content. The generated plasma fulfills the standard requirements (<6.0 x 10(9) erythrocytes/L) recommended by the Council of Europe. Further, we successfully linked the plasmapheresis microchip to our previously developed porous silicon sandwich antibody microarray chip for prostate specific antigen (PSA) detection. PSA was detected by good linearity (R(2) > 0.99) in the generated plasma via fluorescence readout without any signal amplification at clinically relevant levels (0.19-21.8 ng/mL).

Sensitive detection of platelet-specific antibodies with a modified MAIPA using biotinylated antibodies and streptavidin-coated beads.

We have developed a modified monoclonal antibody immobilization of platelet antigens assay (MAIPA) with enhanced sensitivity in detecting antibodies against human platelet antigens (HPA), using biotinylated monoclonal antibodies, streptavidin-coated beads and detection by flow cytometry. The beads-MAIPA gave superior signal-to-noise resolution (>10-fold higher) for detection of anti-HPA-1a and anti-HPA-5b compared with the in-house standard MAIPA. Also, efficient and reproducible detection of anti-HPA-15 (CD109) was shown. The enhanced sensitivity was confirmed using WHO International Reference Reagents for anti-HPA-1a, anti-HPA-3a and anti-HPA-5b, which allowed comparison of detection endpoints with other laboratories. Finally, the beads-MAIPA was validated for quantification of anti-HPA-1a. The lower limit of quantification was 0.4IU/mL for beads-MAIPA, compared to 1IU/mL previously reported for standard MAIPA. Based on improved performance against all HPA-antibodies tested, the beads-MAIPA has replaced the standard MAIPA in our laboratory in diagnostics of conditions due to HPA-immunization, such as fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (FNAIT).

Porous silicon antibody microarrays for quantitative analysis: measurement of free and total PSA in clinical plasma samples.

The antibody microarrays have become widespread, but their use for quantitative analyses in clinical samples has not yet been established. We investigated an immunoassay based on nanoporous silicon antibody microarrays for quantification of total prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) in 80 clinical plasma samples, and provide quantitative data from a duplex microarray assay that simultaneously quantifies free and total PSA in plasma. To further develop the assay the porous silicon chips was placed into a standard 96-well microtiter plate for higher throughput analysis. The samples analyzed by this quantitative microarray were 80 plasma samples obtained from men undergoing clinical PSA testing (dynamic range: 0.14-44 ng/ml, LOD: 0.14 ng/ml). The second dataset, measuring free PSA (dynamic range: 0.40-74.9 ng/ml, LOD: 0.47 ng/ml) and total PSA (dynamic range: 0.87-295 ng/ml, LOD: 0.76 ng/ml), was also obtained from the clinical routine. The reference for the quantification was a commercially available assay, the ProStatus PSA Free/Total DELFIA. In an analysis of 80 plasma samples the microarray platform performs well across the range of total PSA levels. This assay might have the potential to substitute for the large-scale microtiter plate format in diagnostic applications. The duplex assay paves the way for a future quantitative multiplex assay, which analyzes several prostate cancer biomarkers simultaneously.

ENSAM: Europium Nanoparticles for Signal enhancement of Antibody Microarrays on nanoporous silicon.

To improve the sensitivity of antibody microarray assays, we developed ENSAM (Europium Nanoparticles for Signal enhancement of Antibody Microarrays). ENSAM is based on two nanomaterials. The first is polystyrene nanoparticles incorporated with europium chelate (beta-diketone) and coated with streptavidin. The multiple fluorophores incorporated into each nanoparticle should increase signal obtained from a single binding event. The second nanomaterial is array surfaces of nanoporous silicon, which creates high capacity for antibody adsorption. Two antibody microarray assays were compared: ENSAM and use of streptavidin labeled with a nine-dentate europium chelate. Analyzing biotinylated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) spiked into human female serum, ENSAM yielded a 10-fold signal enhancement compared to the streptavidin-europium chelate. Similarly, we observed around 1 order of magnitude greater sensitivity for the ENSAM assay (limit of detection < or = 0.14 ng/mL, dynamic range > 10(5)) compared to the streptavidin-europium chelate assay (limit of detection < or = 0.7 ng/mL, dynamic range > 10(4)). Analysis of a titration series showed strong linearity of ENSAM ( R2 = 0.99 by linear regression). This work demonstrates the novel utility of nanoparticles with time-resolved fluorescence for signal enhancement of antibody microarrays, requiring as low as 100-200 zmol biotinylated PSA per microarray spot. In addition, proof of principle was shown for analyzing PSA in plasma obtained from patients undergoing clinical PSA-testing.

Porous silicon surfaces: a candidate substrate for reverse protein arrays in cancer biomarker detection.

This paper introduces a new substrate for reverse-phase protein microarray applications based on macroporous silicon. A key feature of the microarray substrate is the vastly surface enlarging properties of the porous silicon, which simultaneously offers highly confined microarray spots. The proof of principle of the reverse array concept was demonstrated in the detection of different levels of cyclin E, a possible cancer biomarker candidate which regulates G1-S transition and correlates with poor prognosis in different types of human cancers. The substrate properties were studied performing analysis of total cyclin E expression in human colon cancer cell lines Hct116 and SW480. The absence of unspecific binding and good microarray quality was demonstrated. In order to verify the performance of the 3-D textured macroporous surface for complex biological samples, lysates of the human tissue spiked to different levels with cell extract overproducing cyclin E (Hct116) were arrayed on the chip surface. The samples were spotted in a noncontact mode in 100 pL droplets with spots sizes ranged between 50 and 70 mum and spot-to-spot center distances 100 mum, allowing microarray spot densities up to 14 000 spots per cm(2). The different sample types of increasing complexities did not have any impact on the spot intensities recorded and the protein spots showed good homogeneity and reproducibility over the recorded microarrays. The data demonstrate the potential use of macroporous silicon as a substrate for quantitative determination of a cancer biomarker cyclin E in tissue lysates.

High-speed biomarker identification utilizing porous silicon nanovial arrays and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

Speed and accuracy are crucial prerequisites in the application of proteomic methods to clinical medicine. We describe a microfluidic-based nanovial array for rapid proteolytic processing linked to MALDI-TOF MS. This microscale format consumes only minute amounts of sample, and it is compatible with rapid bioanalytical protocols and high-sensitivity readouts. Arrays of vials (300 microm in diameter and 25 microm deep), isotropically etched in silicon wafers were electrochemically porosified. Automated picoliter microdispensing was employed for precise fluid handling in the microarray format. Vials were prefilled with trypsin solution, which was allowed to dry. Porosified and nonporosified nanovials were compared for trypsin digestion and subsequent MS identification of three model proteins: lysozyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, and serum albumin at levels of 100 and 20 fmol. In an effort to assess the rapid digestion platform in a context of putative clinical applications, two prostate cancer biomarkers, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and human glandular kallikrein 2 (hK2), were digested at levels of 100 fmol (PSA), 20 fmol (PSA) and 8 fmol (hK2). All biomarker digestions were completed in less than 30 s, with successful MS identification in the porous nanovial setting.