Application of Biochip Microfluidic Technology to Detect Serum Allergen-specific Immunoglobulin E (sIgE)

Summary

This paper presents a protocol for detecting serum-specific immunoglobulin E with a microfluidic cartridge-based chemiluminescence system and the evaluation of its usefulness in allergy diagnoses.

Abstract

Allergic disease is common in both adults and children. Identification of the causative allergens is significant in disease management and prevention. However, a specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) measurement system with a high price-performance ratio is lacking in mainland China, especially in the primary care hospitals. This paper describes the principle and operation procedures of using a microfluidic cartridge-based chemiluminescence system to detect allergen-specific IgE in serum. The results were compared with those from ImmunoCAP (System 1), the industrial standard, and the reproducibility of the system to detect patients sensitized to common allergens is evaluated. The results showed that in comparison with ImmunoCAP (System 1), the BioIC System (System 2) has good precision and sensitivity in detecting serum-specific IgE against various inhalant and food allergens but with a significantly lower cost. It can serve as a good alternative to System 1 in primary care hospitals in mainland China who have lower financial affordability.

Introduction

The prevalence of allergies has increased steadily in the past decades and is affecting 20%-30% of the global population¹. Identification of the causative allergens has important significance in managing the diseases. In China, since registered in vivo skin prick tests are not available in the country, in vitro determination of serum-specific IgE is the most important and commonly used tool for type I allergy diagnoses². This is similar to practices in the Western world, but although ImmunoCAP system (System 1), a fluorescence enzyme-linked immunosorbent base system, is perceived as the gold standard for in vitro allergy....

Protocol

This study and the use of human serum samples were approved by the Ethics Committee of The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (GYYY-2016-73). All participants have given their written consent independently or through their parents (in the case of children).

1. Basic information of the study group

NOTE: The Allergy Information Repository of the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease (AIR-SKLRD) is a large serum bank established inside the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Hospital (GIRH). Initiated in the last decade, the AIR-SKLRD has already started to collect and store serum samples f....

Results

Positive rates for 19 common allergens
The results on 293 sera are shown in Figure 3. Among all the inhalant allergens, D. farinae had the highest positive rate (80.89%, 273/293), followed by D. pteronyssinus (78.84%, 231/293). Among the food allergens, crab has the highest positive rate (20.48%, 60/293), followed by 13.65% (40/293) for shrimp. The total positive rate for inhalant allergens was higher than that .......

Discussion

Similar to the results from many other studies^15,16,17, the results from the microfluidic system based on sera from 293 allergic patients showed that house dust mites (including D. pteronyssinus, D. farinae, and B. tropicalis) are the main inhalant allergens leading to allergic diseases in southern China, whereas for food, milk, peanut, shrimp, and crab are the commonest allergens that cause allergic s.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Agnitio BioIC Analyzer	Agnitio Science & Technology(Taiwan, China)	BA-G2000
BioIC Allergen specific-IgE Detection Kit	Agnitio Science & Technology(Taiwan, China)	DR17A12
BioIC Cartrideg Placement plate	Agnitio Science & Technology(Taiwan, China)	T20SET
BioIC Reagent Dispenser	Agnitio Science & Technology(Taiwan, China)	DS-1
Image two-dimensional barcode machine	Agnitio Science & Technology(Taiwan, China)	NLS-HR200
Software Package, LabIT	Agnitio Science & Technology(Taiwan, China)	Version 2.4.12
VORTEX-5 Vortex Mixer	Haimen Kylinbell Lab Lastruments Co., Ltd.	VORTEX-5