Thursday, October 23, 2014

Basic Knowledge On Thyroid ELISA Kits

By Jocelyn Davidson


Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay is a process in medical diagnostics where specific protein molecules are calibrated or if they are present in a given sample. This is mainly used in figuring out if there is any disease or innate conditions in a person to adhere adequate medication as soon as possible.

One of these examples is for HIV, where it finds antibodies related to the virus inside the blood. Another would be for the thyroid glands, and the common equipment that are used in laboratories are Thyroid ELISA kits. These kits are used for studying the thyroid glands, as well as other types of kits are used for other body parts.

In general, ELISA is also used for tests in illegal drug use. It also helps determine the allergic reactions towards food for a person. It is widely used as a tool in plant pathology, and also in quality control check in some industries. How to determine this is through the intensity of the color change of each sample of the patient.

There are two most common types of ELISA tests. The indirect detects protein or the antibody and the example for this is as what was mentioned, HIV tests. The other one is the capture or sandwich. It detects the antigen by capturing them between two antibodies. The hormone human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, is detected using sandwich. One example of this would be pregnancy tests.

Various ways of collecting fluid samples from patients are possible, but the two most common are urine and blood. Urine and blood are placed in a container, or most likely a test tube, then are sent out to the hospital laboratories or clinics for analysis and testing. Inside the laboratory, the testing would start if there is any present antigen or antibody.

As for human blood, it is made up of plasma, red cells, and white blood cells. What is needed for the tests are blood serum. It is plasma that is stripped off with the clotting behaviour through centrifuge which spins the samples in high speed to separate the blood in different parts. The cells would be on the bottom while the serum stays on top.

There are enzyme substrate combinations that can be used for detection. The one enzyme used the most is Horseradish Peroxidase. This cleaves or separates the substrate molecules Ortho Phenylenediamine Dihydrochloride, or OPD, and Tetramethylbenzidine, or TMB, from each other. The result would be a yellow color when these two are separated. Then a plate reader is used to measure the optical density.

If the patient has already been determined to have a disease or condition, the samples of their blood or urine will have certain antibodies which will be the ones to react to the test. These antibodies will stick to the antigens, which these antigens are bonding agents for the entire test. A solution is used to wash away everything in it except for the antigens, or also the antibodies that are sticking to the antigens.

Color changes, as mentioned before, are where you can achieve the results. Enzyme solutions are applied in the samples to get these results if they give out a positive result or not. There might be some instances where the sample from the patient has no known infection or disease but the test still outputs a positive result, this is known as a false positive. Even though this is possible, ELISA tests are definitely reliable and commonly used as well, which is considered by the immunology community.




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