Serum stripper aids in biomarker discovery

Agilent Technologies has launched a liquid chromatography column that enables the simultaneous removal of six high-abundance proteins from human blood serum using liquid chromatography.

The company said the immunoaffinity technology will allow researchers to identify more rare proteins that could serve as drug targets or biological markers in the detection of disease.

Prof. Gary Siuzdak of The Scripps Research Institute and founder of Mass Consortium Corporation said that the product, called the Multiple Affinity Removal System, "has allowed us to rapidly identify three to four different proteins that we believe could act as biomarkers for the onset of disease."​

Before the technology became available, the team was unsuccessful at identifying markers in this sample because of the masking effect of the high-abundance proteins, he added.

Blood serum is considered a rich source of biological markers for disease. It is believed to contain the largest set of proteins expressed in any biological sample and it can be easily extracted, whereas tissue samples may require biopsy for analysis.

Six proteins in serum - albumin, immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin A, alpha-1-antitrypsin, transferring and haptoglobin - account for 85 per cent of the total protein mass. Agilent's product can reduce 99 per cent of these proteins with minimal removal of other types.

Fran DiNuzzo, vice president and general manager of Agilent's bioreagents, consumables and services operations, described the product as a breakthrough that would accelerate proteomics research.

The product is available in an HPLC column format that can be combined with Agilent's 1100 series multi-dimensional LC/MS systems and Spectrum Mill data analysis software for protein analysis. Further information is available at Agilent​.

Meanwhile, Agilent and Paradigm Genetics have introduced a 60-mer oligonucleotide mouse microarray that allows researchers to conduct genome-wide profiling research to better understand adverse drug reactions, physiological effects of toxins and toxic substances and to study genetic diseases such as cancer.

The Agilent Mouse Oligo Microarray Kit​ can be used to assess over 20,000 well-characterised mouse genes and transcripts, including a special set of toxicology markers defined through a collaboration with several public and private enterprises, including the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and members of the Toxicogenomics Research Consortium.

Paradigm has a $23.8 million (€21m) toxicogenomics contract with the NIEHS and is beginning to process thousands of Agilent mouse and rat oligo microarrays to develop genetic profiles of organism responses to toxicants. Eventually, these profiles will be collected into a database that will be publicly available to the scientific community.

Both products were introduced at IBC's Drug Discovery Technology World Congress 2003.