By Jocelyn Davidson


ELISA is a medical test used in the enclosure of laboratories to figure out if a person has any certain disease or condition. It is an abbreviation from Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay, where it tests the presence of certain protein molecules in a sample. Its main purpose is for testing the immunity of a patient.

HIV tests are one of the many examples of ELISA. It detects antibodies which are connected to the virus that are inside the blood of the patient. As for thyroid glands, Thyroid ELISA kits are used in most laboratories for further studying the present protein molecules. With this, other various kits are existent depending on what use they are.

In science and in certain industries, this test is used as one of the many tools of plant pathology and also with quality control check. Other examples this test is used for in diagnostic clinics are for food allergy and illegal drugs. The reading for this is determined by the vibrancy and intensity of the color changes in swabs whenever a sample is tested.

Two types of ELISA tests are widely used in laboratories. The first one is indirect which detects the antibodies in a given sample. An example for indirect is HIV testing, where it detects the antibodies in the sample which are against the virus. The second one is called capture or sandwich. It detects the antigens and then capture them between two antibodies. A good sample for this would be on pregnancy tests which detects the hCG or the human chorionic gonadotropin.

Various ways of collecting fluid samples from patients are possible, but the two most common are urine and blood. Urine and blood are placed in a container, or most likely a test tube, then are sent out to the hospital laboratories or clinics for analysis and testing. Inside the laboratory, the testing would start if there is any present antigen or antibody.

The human blood samples inside the test tubes will be placed in a centrifuge to separate the different parts of it and for it to get a blood serum. A blood serum is a sample that has the clotting feature taken out of it. The high speed from the centrifuge separates the cells and plasma, making it easier to extract the serum.

There are enzyme substrate combinations that can be used for detection. The one enzyme used the most is Horseradish Peroxidase. This cleaves or separates the substrate molecules Ortho Phenylenediamine Dihydrochloride, or OPD, and Tetramethylbenzidine, or TMB, from each other. The result would be a yellow color when these two are separated. Then a plate reader is used to measure the optical density.

In cases where the patient has revealed to have a disease or other conditions, the sample will have antibodies for that specific disease. The antibodies will then attach to these antigens that are the bonding agents in these ELISA tests. The samples would then be cleaned or washed away with a different solution so that the remaining in the sample would be the antigens or the antibodies that are clinging to the antigens.

To get results through color changes, enzyme solutions would be added to the samples to get either a positive or a negative result. But there is a certain possibility for the test results to give a false positive. A false positive is when a sample has no infection or whatever but still gives a positive result. Even so, ELISA tests are reliable and considered to be a standard in the immunology community.




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