MSD Cytokine Assay: Unraveling Cellular Signaling through Multi-Spot Assays

Cytokines are signaling molecules primarily secreted by the immune cells. Their primary function is coordinating cell growth, differentiation, and proliferation. Cytokines and their receptors have a broad spectrum of functions, including immune cell differentiation, inflammation, innate and adaptive immunity, tumorigenesis, angiogenesis, viral pathogenesis, and neurobiology. Today, research has demonstrated that cytokine expression dysregulation causes inflammatory and immunological disease and other medical conditions. Different cells secrete chemokines often to attract immune cells during innate and adaptive immune reactions. 

Considering the importance of cytokine evaluation, several biomedical immunoassays are available to detect and measure cytokines and other biomarkers. Meso Scale Discovery assays are one such robust platform for analyzing cytokines and other biomarkers. The Meso Scale Discovery multiplex platform has an extensive portfolio of MSD biomarkers and MSD cytokine assays to support cytokine and chemokine detection. The current article discusses MSD-ECL assays for cytokine analysis. 

MSD Meso Scale cytokine assays for cellular signaling

MSD-ECL assays are robust quantification tools for determining absolute quantities of chemokines, cytokines, and other signaling proteins. These proteins may have multiple roles, for example, pharmacodynamic biomarkers for evaluating drug effects through dose responses and kinetics in animal and cell models. MSD ELISA assays use protein levels in the body to assess and monitor drug effects. Meso Scale Discovery multiplex assays can quantify multiple proteins simultaneously to provide high-quality data with minimal sample volumes. 

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MSD ECL assay services can be summarized as follows:

• Sensitive and accurate quantification of multiple analytes in complex study materials
• Determination and monitoring of cytokines and other biomarkers to assess drug responses in animal and cellular drug testing
• Simple plate-based ELISA method with advanced electrochemiluminescence detection offering unprecedented specificity and sensitivity
• Meso Scale Discovery multiplex assays for evaluating more than 200 analytes in self-assembled multiplex systems and ready-to-use preselected assay plate combinations
• Applications in numerous research and therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, cell signaling, and many more.

MSD cytokine assays are generally performed in 96-well microplates that can detect up to 10 analytes per well. These microplates have high-binding carbon electrodes that help in attaching and capturing antibodies with ten times the binding capacities obtained through traditional ELISA assay plates. Most MSD assays are sandwich-based methods that use detection antibodies labeled through a Sulfo-tag. During analysis, electricity reaches the carbon electrodes through the instrument, which leads to light emission from the labeled Sulfo-tag. The emitted signal is measured, which correlates to the amount of target analytes present in the sample. 

MSD-ECL assays are standard immunoassays with multiple advantages over traditional ligand binding assays, including:

• Multiplexing capacities of cost-effective and rapid testing of a wide range of cytokines and other potential biomarkers
• As little as five microliters of the study sample are enough to evaluate cytokines in biological samples such as plasma, serum, and blood.
• With exceptional assay dynamic range, scientists can detect and measure proteins available at low levels in the femtogram range, offering 1000 times more sensitivity compared to traditional ELISA assays.

Most importantly, Meso Scale Discovery assays are available in thoroughly validated ready-to-use kits with defined calibrates for accurate, reliable, reproducible cytokine analysis.