Traditional ELISA methods for antibody affinity determination fail to reveal the presence of low affinity antibodies in antisera: an alternative approach

Abstract

Traditionally used methods of antibody affinity determination either by ELISA or by the surface plasmon resonance technique do not allow detection of the presence of low-affinity antibodies in samples of high-affinity antibodies. In this paper we demonstrate the possibility to reveal their presence and to determine the affinities of both categories of antibodies as well as the ratio of their concentrations. This is especially important since by using traditional methods for antibody affinity evaluation the admixture of low-affinity antibodies in a sample diminishes the accuracy in determination of specific antibody affinity. In addition, the presence of an admixture of low-affinity antibodies may be an important biological characteristic of the system under study; their revelation and the evaluation of their binding parameters may be valuable in many cases for obtaining a more complete characterization of the binding properties of the multiple antibodies generated in an immune response.