METHOD FOR DIFFERENTIALLY DETECTING MULTIMERIC FORM OF MULTIMER-FORMING POLYPEPTIDES

摘要

PURPOSE: A method for distinguishing and detecting multimeric forms of multimer-forming polypeptides is provided to identify the presence of an analyte in a biological sample and quantitate the analyte by analyzing the size or the shape of an aggregate, and to detect the multimeric forms by only analyzing an image acquired from the sample. CONSTITUTION: A method for distinguishing and detecting multimeric forms of multimer-forming polypeptides in a biological sample comprises the steps of contacting the biological sample with an aggregation inducer and forming an aggregate of multimer-forming polypeptides; acquiring an image of the aggregate; and analyzing the size or the shape of the aggregate from the image. The steps are performed in a microchip with microchannels. The aggregation inducer is a particle of which surface is conjugated with a multimer-forming polypeptide-specific antibody. When the multimeric forms exist in the biological sample, the size of the aggregate is larger than the size of an aggregate of monomeric forms of the multimer-forming polypeptides, and the size of a reference is same as the size of the aggregate of the monomeric forms.