Multimer type discrimination and detection method for multimer-forming polypeptide

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for selectively detecting a multimer type multimer-forming polypeptide in a biological sample, the method comprising: (a) bringing the biological sample into contact with an agglutination reaction inducing agent to induce the formation of an aggregate in an analysis target, the agglutination reaction inducing agent being a particle in which a specific antibody is surface-bonded with the multimer-forming polypeptide; (b) obtaining an image with respect to the aggregate of step (a); and (c) analyzing a size or a shape of the aggregate by using the image. Step (a), step (b), or steps (a) and (b) are performed on a microchip having a microchannel. The image analysis is performed using a coefficient according to the size of the aggregate in a predetermined volume provided by the microchannel. In the case where the multimer type of multimer-forming polypeptide is present in the biological sample, the size of the aggregate is larger than the size of an aggregate of a monomer type control group. According to the present invention, unlike in a detection method using chemiluminescence immunoanalysis of the related art, an image with respect to an agglutination reaction target is obtained and then a size or a shape of an aggregate is analyzed so as to determine whether or not an analysis target is present in a biological sample and to determine the quantity of the analysis target. Also, it is possible to detect a multimer type multimer-forming polypeptide by just analyzing an image acquired from the sample so that the detection process is made more convenient and quick.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.