Articles

ANCA Testing

The anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs)
consist of a range of antibodies which give rise to
very specific immunofluorescence pattern termed
cANCA (cytoplasmic) and pANCA (perinuclear) – the
cytoplasmic cANCA patterns is a typical pattern
usually indicating the presence of anti-proteinase 3
(PR3) antibodies.
The pANCA pattern, on the other hand, can be
generated by antibodies against a plethora of
antigens, the most important being antibodies
against myeloperoxidase (MPO). In order to
standardize the testing of ANCAs, a minimum
requirement was defined in an international
consensus statement (Savige et al. 1999). Here,
ANCA testing demands an ELISA test following a
positive IFT result.
Furthermore, the European Vasculitis Study Group
(EUVAS) showed that the diagnostic specificity
increases to 99 % when the IFT is combined with an
antigen-specific ELISA: e.g. C-ANCA and PR3-ELISA;
P-ANCA and MPO-ELISA (Hagen et al. 1998).

AESKULISA® PR3 sensitive (REF 3302)

AESKU.DIAGNOSTICS scientists have
developed an innovative method for the
presentation of the antigen to the surface
of the solid support, exposing a variety of
relevant epitopes which would be hidden
in the direct ELISAs, where the PR3
antigen is merely coated to the surface of
the microtitre plate. This coating method,
introduced in the AESKULISA® PR3
sensitive production since 2001,
exposes all relevant epitopes for the
binding of ANCAs and has been shown to
be superior to direct ELISAs and compare
very favorably with ELISAs based on the
antibody capture techniques. (Trevisin et
al. 2008; Radice et al. 2009; Csernok et
al. 2010). Hence, AESKULISA® PR3
sensitive offers increased sensitivities
and specificities compared to the
commonly used direct ELISA setup.