Allergen Microarrays for the Diagnosis of Specific IgE Against Components of Cow Milk and Hen Egg in a Multiplex Biochip-Based Immunoassay

Over the last few decades, the prevalence of allergic diseases has increased dramatically in developed nations. The resulting burden on health care systems worldwide has provoked a whole series of research initiatives among allergy experts and commercial companies that aim to develop novel tests to improve the diagnostic risk assessment and early preventive treatment of the disease. The advent of protein microarray technology has inspired the development of miniaturized immunological applications that permit the simultaneous analysis of huge numbers of disease-related parameters. Allergen microarrays have been developed for the monitoring of patient-specific antibody profiles to a previously unknown variety of allergens in a single analytical step. This has been accomplished by the successful adaptation of solid-phase antibody assays for the detection of surface-bound allergens to the microarray format, the development of appropriate assay conditions, and the improvement of software-guided microarray image analysis. Here we report a protocol for the development and analysis of food allergen microarrays.