Immunoassay method for pro-gastrin-releasing peptide
OwnerToru Yoshimura, Kenju Fujita +1inventors
InventorsToru Yoshimura, Kenju Fujita, Barry L. Dowell
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Abstract
To provide a more convenient and more accurate method of assaying ProGRP by improving the stability of ProGRP which is known to be unstable in a biological sample. By using a blood sample in a condition in which a blood coagulation factor is not activated is used as a sample, the degradation of ProGRP is suppressed, whereby it is possible to store a sample for a long period of time and to improve the accuracy of an assay.
Claims15
A method of assaying ProGRP in a blood sample comprising the steps of:
- a)contacting said blood sample with an antibody against ProGRP for a time and under conditions sufficient for formation of antibody/ProGRP complexes, wherein said blood sample comprises one or more unactivated blood coagulation factors;
- and
- b) detecting presence of said antibody/ProGRP complexes, presence of said complexes indicating presence of ProGRP in said blood sample.
(canceled)
A method of improving the in vivo stability of a serum sample containing ProGRP comprising the step of adding to a serum sample containing ProGRP obtained from a subject a stabilizing amount of at least one serum protease inhibitor.
A ProGRP-stabilizing composition, wherein said composition comprises at least one serine protease inhibitor.
A kit for stabilizing ProGRP in a serum sample, the kit comprising:
- (a) at least one serum protease inhibitor;
- and
- (b) instructions for using the kit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.