Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Measuring or testing process involving enzymes or... – Involving antigen-antibody binding – specific binding protein...
Patent
1998-09-03
2000-07-25
Saunders, David
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Measuring or testing process involving enzymes or...
Involving antigen-antibody binding, specific binding protein...
435 23, 435 25, 435 28, 435 29, 4352861, 4352961, 4353031, 4353071, 435374, 435407, 435809, 436 71, 436 86, 436 98, 436513, C12M 100, C12M 104, C12M 138, G01N 3350, G01N 3368
Patent
active
060935510
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a process for the in vitro diagnosis of allergic, in particular also pseudoallergic, immunological and environment-related disorders using vital biopsy tissue samples, and to a mobile incubation device for maintaining the vitality and functioning of the tissue samples.
A predominant task of the human immune system is to distinguish between endogenous and exogenous substances and, where appropriate, initiate destruction of the exogenous substances.
The progress in the development of immunological methods in the past has repeatedly revealed novel diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities. Thus, for example, highly specific monoclonal antibodies are used as detectors for pathogenic viruses, bacteria and parasites or for detecting pathological cellular alterations. It has additionally been found recently that numerous chronic disorders are attributable to a pathological reaction of the immune system. In so-called autoimmune diseases such as myasthenia, rheumatoid arthritis or else juvenile diabetes, the immune response is directed against endogenous cells and substances. Also to be categorized as pathological are the cases where the body initiates an excessive immune response as a result of contact with an exogenous substance. These hypersensitivities, referred to as allergies, to substances which are innocuous per se, may induce cutaneous and mucosal swelling over the whole body or, in serious cases, life-threatening reactions in conjunction with an anaphylactic shock.
Elucidation of the individual immunological functional processes, especially the diagnosis of the specific reaction of the individual patient to particular allergens, represents a task which is, especially in recent times, becoming increasingly important in medicine.
A large number of very disparate processes are known for detecting allergic reactions:
Thus, for example, tissue samples are routinely taken after operations and during endoscopic investigations. After the tissue samples have been taken they are deprived of nutrients and rapidly die. With suitable staining methods and immunohistological labeling methods it is possible to draw conclusions, from morphological changes and from the detection of particular antigens, about certain allergic reactions. These histopathological methods do not, however, permit any conclusions about the substances which induce an immediate allergic reaction (called a type 1 reaction). Likewise, no statements about the current functioning of the immune cells are possible.
Essentially three different test methods are employed for diagnosing these type 1 allergies:
The most widely used are the so-called skin test methods. These entail extracts of suspected allergens being introduced into the skin by either scratching or pricking, or they are placed on the skin. The locally stimulated allergic reaction is then manifested as reddening and swelling of the affected area of skin.
In immediate-type allergic reactions, immunoglobulin E (IgE) is involved as antibody. This is made use of in the blood test methods in which the amount of IgE in the blood is determined with the aid of radioimmunological or immunoenzymatic methods. These methods not only allow the total amount of IgE in the blood to be determined but also permit allergen-specific immunoglobulins to be determined.
The third method, finally, involves so-called specific provocation procedures in which the allergens are brought into contact directly with the patient's mucosa (for example the nasal or intestinal mucosa) and the reaction is observed.
However, a crucial disadvantage of all three methods is the fact that the patient must be exposed to the allergen. This may, on the one hand, lead to an unwanted renewed sensitization and, on the other hand, in fact induce serious reactions, such as anaphylactic shock, in individual cases.
There is thus an urgent need for a test for type 1 allergies (immediate type) which, on the one hand, permits reliable diagnosis of the reaction to a specific allergen and which, on the other hand, doe
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Raithel Martin
Reimann Hans-Jurgen
Raithel Martin
Saunders David
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