Developing technologies in cytokine detection - a meeting report
20 June 2006
EuroSciCon at Birkbeck College, London.
This Euroscicon meeting provided an ideal forum for bench scientists to catch up with the commercial companies slant on technologies such as multiplex cytokine analysis, cytokine secretion assays and intracellular staining and to hear colleagues discuss the application of these techniques in areas such as tuberculosis in humans and cattle, HIV, autoimmunity and dendritic cell biology. The day started with two talks on detection of cytokines in tuberculosis (TB). The first was by Dr Ian Durrantfrom Oxford - he presented his work on the introduction of the first ELISPOT assay to diagnose human TB. ELISPOT assays are a good for this particular type of diagnosis as they are in the order of 2 logs more sensitive thank ELISA or FACS analysis, with cytokine release being detected at the single cell level. DrMartin Vordermeierfrom the VLA-Weybridge, continued the TB theme presenting his data on the development of subunit vaccines and a diagnostic test for bovine TB. Comparative analysis of the genomes of M. bovis, BCG, M. avium, M. paratuberculosis and Steptomyces coelicolor was performed, to pinpoint potential M. bovis - specific antigens. Specifically, RD1, RD2 and RD-14 regions were screened with pools of overlapping peptides in a high throughput ELISA - based system for IFNg production. Cell wall peptides were found to be particularly good for differential diagnosis and potential subunit vaccines. This talk was followed by the first of several looking at multiplex cytokine analysis. Dr Alex Liversage (Biorad, UK) described the Bio-Plex Suspension Assay System, which uses the Luminex technology and Dr Jayne Hope (Institute for Animal Health, Compton, UK) highlighted the fact that there are considerable fewer reagents for bovine immunology research compared to the human field.. The second talk of the day on multiplex cytokine analysis was given by Dr Graham Wallace (University of Birmingham, UK) who has been using the Luminex system to analysis cytokines in aqueous humour of uveitis patients and in synovial fluid of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Such results may help determine what governs the resolution or persistence of RA and Dr Tuc Ahmad (Mesoscale Discovery, UK) completed the morning session by presenting the third talk of the day on multiplex cytokine analysis, namely the Discovery multiplex platform. A number of panels of anti - cytokine antibody plate combinations are sold, but it is also possible to coat your own antibody onto the carbon electrodes.
After lunch, the meeting resumed with a talk by Dr Nesrina Imami (Dept. of Immunology, Imperial College London, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, UK) who spoke about the detection of HIV-1- specfic T cells in HIV-1 infected individuals and vaccine recipients. followed by a presentation by Dr Gendie E. Lash(School of Surgical and Reproductive Sciences, University of Newcastle - on Tyne, UK) on the relative merits of three multiplex cytokine analysis systems. This talk directly followed on from attending an equivalent EuroSciCon meeting in 2003, and subsequently trialing several muliplex sytems. Dr John Campbell (Miltenyi Biotech, Germany) then covered the use of a cytokine secretion assay system to detect and enrich antigen - specific CD4+ and CD4+ T cells. The final talk of the day was given by Dr Andrew Stagg (Imperial College, London) who covered the use of intracellular cytokine staining to analyse the function of tissue dc.
Overall, this was an interesting meeting that updated the audience on some important techniques for cytokine analysis and built on previous EuroSciCon meetings in this area. My thanks go to Shara Cohen and her colleagues at EuroSciCon (www.euroscicon.com) for all their hard work in setting up such meetings.
A full report can be found at http://www.eurosciconpodcasts.com/blog/_archives/2006/12/7/2556909.html
